MEMPHIS — Well, at least the Utah Jazz didn’t get swept on this road trip.
With a 127-121 win over the Memphis Grizzlies on Friday, the Jazz snapped a five-game losing streak, won the final game of a brutal road trip and started the NBA in-season tournament with a 1-0 record.
While the Jazz did come away with the win against Memphis, it certainly wasn’t pretty.
Chaos
The Jazz were in a pretty incredible position midway through the third quarter. They had led by 11 points at halftime and had extended that to 21 points after the intermission.
They were getting a friendly whistle, shooting the lights out and were playing against a very shorthanded Grizzlies team with the worst record in the league.
This was a game that had Jazz win written all over it, and they nearly let it go.
The Jazz started to get extra sloppy with the ball, and when Jaren Jackson Jr. was ejected with 4:30 left in the third, the Grizzlies got more precise and more physical.
“When the game gets hectic, especially on the road and the arena gets hectic, we have to find a way to maintain our composure,” Jazz head coach Will Hardy said.
“At the end of the third quarter, we had five turnovers in 3 ½ minutes, which allowed Memphis to get back into the game.”
Despite trailing by as many as 21 points, the Grizzlies completely erased that deficit by punishing the Jazz for their mistakes.
The Jazz were able to come up with some Lauri Markkanen and Jordan Clarkson heroics in the final minutes, but they also had another game with more than 20 turnovers.
The Jazz have only played 10 games this season, and in six of those games they have committed at least 20 turnovers.
That’s not a good recipe for success and it’s something that needs to be cleaned up because it’ll clearly cost the Jazz close games, but on Friday, it nearly cost them a game they should have won running away.
Bright spots
Of course, it wasn’t all doom and gloom.
Rookie Keyonte George, in his second start with the Jazz, dished out 11 assists with just two turnovers, Markkanen and Clarkson each scored 26 points to help lead the Jazz to victory and the Jazz got a boost from some others as well.
Ochai Agbaji, who was also making his second start of the season, had his best game of the campaign. He scored 15 points on 6-of-8 shooting, hitting 3-of-5 3-point attempts, to go with six rebounds, two blocks, one steal and one assist.
“Early on we were all getting good looks and we kind of just stayed with it,” Agbaji said. “We turned the intensity up on defense and I think that set the tone.”
Also, over the last couple of games, Simone Fontechhio has been a spark off the bench, adding some physicality, scoring and toughness at the small forward spot that the Jazz have been lacking.
“His best attribute is he just plays so hard,” Hardy said. “He’s a little bit bigger than you think, he’s a little bit more physical than you think, he’s a little bit more athletic than you think and he’s just disciplined and knows how to execute on both ends. …Obviously his threat of shooting is great for us, but I’m more excited about all the the other things that he does…I’ve been very happy with his minutes the last couple of games.”
The Jazz improved to 3-7 on the season and will return home, where they’ll have three days off before they play two more in-season tournament games.