The Utah Jazz blew out the Oklahoma City Thunder 109-93 on Friday night at Chesapeake Energy Arena in the 71st game of the season. All that remains in the regular season is a game in Sacramento on Sunday.
High notes
- Mike Conley made his return to the court! The All-Star guard was on a minutes restriction and didn’t play in the second half as the Jazz slowly bring him back into the fold. He had 10 points in just a smidge over 16 minutes of play, and five of those points came at the free-throw line.
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“He’s got a presence on the floor and it’s good to see him out there.” —Jazz head coach Quin Snyder
- The Jazz won with ease, never trailing, and ran away against a Thunder team that has been actively tanking all season. The Jazz need just one more win or a Phoenix loss to secure the No. 1 seed in the West, and the game on Friday was basically a scheduled win. Sacramento has been eliminated from the playoffs and the play-in tournament, so it’s unlikely that the Kings field too many of their rotation players in the final game of the season on Sunday, making the path to No. 1 looking very smooth for the Jazz.
- The Thunder tank is so strong that even when bench player Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk got it going with 11 of his team-high 19 points in the second quarter, he was pulled from the game so that he could cool off. It’s really impressive how committed they are to losing.
- Trent Forrest had another good showing off the bench for the Jazz and showed off some really impressive passing skills against the Thunder.
- Bojan Bogdanovic led the Jazz with 22 points, and Jordan Clarkson chipped in 18. The usual suspects looked good.
Low notes
- Rudy Gobert was leading the break, got fancy, dribbled behind the back and then committed a backcourt violation after he stepped over the halfcourt line and passed the ball behind it. It was really more funny than anything else.
- The score doesn’t really represent how much of a blowout this game was. The Jazz were in garbage time for the entire fourth quarter and led by as many as 28 points.
Flat notes
- Because the Thunder are tanking we don’t get to watch Luguentz Dort, and that’s bad. He’s such a fun player.
- Also, the OKC tank, coming against the No. 1 team in the league in the 71st game of the season, made for a pretty boring game. That happens sometimes at this point in the season and it’s really exhausting. I even polled Jazz fans on Twitter and nearly 40% of the people who responded said they either weren’t watching the game or fell asleep while watching. On to the next one.