Utah Jazz overcome bad first half, cruise past the Detroit Pistons 104-81

SALT LAKE CITY — The last time the Utah Jazz played their final game of a decade before Monday, they battled the Oklahoma City Thunder in a low-scoring affair that ended just 87-86 in the Thunder’s favor when Kevin Durant made a pair of free throws with less than five seconds to go.

On Monday at Vivint Arena, in their last game of this decade against an incredibly shorthanded Detroit Pistons team, the Jazz slogged through the first half, with the 40-39 score at intermission, putting the contest on pace to have an even lower final score than the game 10 years ago.

But Utah finally got going in the third quarter and then cruised in the fourth to a 104-81 win.

With the victory, the Jazz have now won eight of their last nine games to move to 21-12 before the 2020 portion of their season gets going.

“The biggest in the first half was just the offense getting stagnant,” said Utah guard Donovan Mitchell, who finished with a game-high 23 points on 7-of-15 shooting. “We did what we wanted on defense ... we didn’t come in (the locker room at halftime) upset or anything. We knew what we were supposed to do. At the end of the day, we just missed some shots. We figured it out on the offensive end and then turned it up to another level on the defensive end.”

Playing a Pistons squad that entered Monday with just a 12-21 record, had lost six of its last seven games and was without five players because of injury headlined by Blake Griffin, the prevailing thought might have been that a Utah team that’s been playing well would have an easy night.

1 of 17

2 of 17

3 of 17

4 of 17

5 of 17

6 of 17

7 of 17

8 of 17

9 of 17

10 of 17

11 of 17

12 of 17

13 of 17

14 of 17

15 of 17

16 of 17

17 of 17

But that wasn’t the case from the tip, as the Jazz didn’t score at all for the first 2:59 of the game and didn’t make anything except free throws for the first 5:01. With just over a minute left in the first quarter, Utah had just 13 points and trailed by eight before Mitchell and Jordan Clarkson each made a 3-pointer to cut the deficit to two.

The second quarter was much the same, as the Jazz either settled for midrange shots or couldn’t make a 3-pointer, as they hit just two of their 11 tries from beyond the arc in the opening 24 minutes. Detroit wasn’t good either, as the two sides combined made less than 36% of their shots in the first half.

“If you shoot the ball without a pass, it doesn’t allow you to have other things unfold,” Utah head coach Quin Snyder said of the Jazz’s struggles on offense early, which led to a bevy of tough midrange shots. “I think it takes a little time for guys to feel that ... I felt we adjusted to that as the game went on.”

Finally as the second half got going, Utah flexed its muscles and outlasted the visitors. Down 42-41 early in the third quarter, the Jazz went on a 14-0 run and led 55-42 at the halfway mark of the frame. Up 10 heading into the fourth quarter, Utah outscored Detroit 36-23 in the final period to put the game away.

“First off, we hit shots and we continued to get stops throughout the entire game,” Mitchell said. “A lot of people were kind of indecisive (early). Just being aggressive and just going. At the end of the day, we got the looks we wanted.”

In all, the Jazz wound up shooting 10-of-26 from distance, meaning they went 8-of-15 in the second half from beyond the arc. One of the best 3-point shooting teams in the NBA, the Pistons finished just 4-of-14 on 3-point attempts.

“(Defending the 3) was really important tonight because they shoot so well, especially the corner 3,” Snyder said. “For the most part, our guys did a good job of not getting sucked in on penetration.”

The Jazz will now head back out on the road for a three-game trip that starts Thursday against the Chicago Bulls.