SALT LAKE CITY — Yes, the Utah Jazz won on Friday night at Vivint Arena, beating the Golden State Warriors 114-106. Come the end of the regular season in April, that’s all that will really matter from this mid-December game.
But in the microscope look of the last few weeks, which have seen the Jazz go 3-4 this month so far, it was in some respects the worst performance of the bunch. The injury-depleted Warriors, after all, have the worst record in the NBA and on Friday were also without Draymond Green, who rested for the night.
Golden State led by as many as 13 in the first half and then hung tough with Utah in the fourth quarter before the Jazz gave themselves a bit of a cushion inside of two minutes remaining as a Donovan Mitchell 3-pointer with 1:33 to play stretched the home side’s lead to 109-104.
Most of the first 46 minutes of the night were anything but good for Utah, however, although the problems were nothing new. In the early going, the Jazz were once again dominated on the glass, as the Warriors finished the first quarter with 16 rebounds to Utah’s seven. The Warriors outrebounded the Jazz on the offensive boards alone in the frame, snagging eight.
Then with the game tied at 22, Golden State closed the quarter on a 7-0 run as the Jazz’s awful bench unit of Emmanuel Mudiay, Georges Niang, Jeff Green and Ed Davis joined by Mitchell entered the game.
Lest Utah’s poor performance be pinned entirely on the bench, however, it was the starters who allowed the Warriors to extend their lead in the second quarter thanks to porous play on both ends of the floor. The Jazz settled for shot attempts instead of trying to work through their offense, and interior and transition defense were once again bad.
Only a late run made it a respectable seven-point deficit at 56-49 heading into halftime as a smattering of boos rained down from the crowd.
“I think our habits have to be better,” Bojan Bogdanovic said after the game. “We cannot wait to get punched in the mouth because against better teams than the Warriors, we’re going to struggle. We’re going to get (losses).”
Superior teams seem to eventually figure things out when they get in a rut, and it appeared that’s what happened as the third quarter started to unfold. Utah started being more aggressive on offense and followed suit on the defensive end of the floor, and the contest was tied at 62 less than five minutes after intermission.
The Jazz ultimately took the lead back at 65-64 on a Rudy Gobert dunk at the 6:56 mark, and they led by seven at 80-73 with 3:06 to play until the fourth quarter.
But then Utah’s bench unit came in again and all but relinquished the lead, as the Warriors got within one at 83-82 just over two minutes later. The Jazz led 86-84 heading into the fourth quarter.
The plus-minus statistic doesn’t always tell an accurate story, but it starkly explains Friday’s game. Utah’s other four starters besides Mitchell all finished at least plus-23, while Green finished minus-18 and both Niang and Davis were minus-17 (Mitchell ended up a plus-3 and Mudiay was a minus-7).
That set up the more-dramatic-than-should’ve-been-necessary fourth quarter, where not only did the Jazz never pull away, but they trailed multiple times, and as late as the 2:12 mark when Jacob Evans III made two free throws to put Golden State up a point, 104-103.
But then things finally started to go right for Utah on the next possession, although it still wasn’t exactly pretty, as Bojan Bogdanovic had to put up a 3-pointer with the shot clock winding down, and it went in to give the Jazz the 106-104 edge with 1:50 to play.
Willie Cauley-Stein missed a slam dunk on the ensuing possession, and Joe Ingles secured the defensive rebound. As he brought the ball up the floor on the wing, Royce O’Neale ran to the middle and Mitchell spaced to the corner. Ingles tossed the ball to O’Neale, who zipped it to Mitchell for a wide-open 3-pointer.
The Warriors still had some life, but Mitchell and Bogdanovic combined to go 5-for-6 from the free-throw line in the final 35 seconds to seal the deal.
All five Jazz starters wound up in double figures. Bogdanovic led with 32 and Mitchell scored 28. Longtime Utah guard Alec Burks led Golden State with 24.
The Jazz will have a few days off before they play next Tuesday at home against the Orlando Magic.
“We have three days off right now to practice and get our habits better,” Bogdanovic said.