SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Jazz turned in a subpar performance, losing to the shorthanded Houston Rockets 126-117 at Vivint Arena on Monday night.
- With no James Harden, Russell Westbrook or Clint Capela for Houston, the Jazz came out flat in a poor first half. The Rockets outscored the Jazz 59-46 with a small-ball starting lineup of Ben McLemore, PJ Tucker, Danuel House Jr., Eric Gordon and Austin Rivers, with the tallest player in that lineup being House at 6-6. The Jazz had open shots in the first half but couldn’t knock them down, shooting just 13.6% on 3-pointers while getting outrebounded 23-19 in the first half, despite having the size advantage. Utah also sent the Rockets to the line 49 times and Houston converted 35 of those foul shots.
- Eric Gordon was on fire, scoring a career-high 50 points while shooting 63.6% from the field and 54.5% from 3-point land. He hit 80% of his free throws. Previously, Gordon’s career high was 41, set in 2009 against the Thunder.
- Utah’s 3-point shooters had an off night. Bojan Bogdanovic was 7-of-13 from deep, but Royce O’Neal went 0-for-3, Joe Ingles was 1-for-7, Mike Conley was 0-for-4 and Jordan Clarkson was 0-for-3.
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Up next: At San Antonio, Wednesday, 6:30 p.m.