After numerous players, including Lauri Markkanen, Jordan Clarkson and Walker Kessler, were out for the Jazz’s 114-103 loss to the Golden State Warriors on Tuesday, the Jazz had nearly their full complement of players available for Thursday’s contest against the Minnesota Timberwolves.
For the first eight minutes of the game, it seemed having the Jazz’s regular starting players and Jordan Clarkson back together was going to result in a rare win as the Jazz raced out to a 25-10 lead, but as the game progressed, the gap between bottom-feeding Utah and a Minnesota team that has won five straight and could be a Western Conference contender when all is said and done was very evident.
A dreadful third quarter in which the Timberwolves outscored the Jazz 44-22 proved to be the difference in Utah’s eighth consecutive loss which kept its spot as the second-worst in the NBA.
“The third quarter is obviously where the game got away from us. That stretch of the game for sure cost us,” Jazz coach Will Hardy said. “A lack of attention to detail on some defensive rotations that led to us being late. And at halftime they had made eight 3s and they made seven in the third quarter alone, and we put ourselves in the hole.”
Anthony Edwards showed why he’s one of the league’s brightest young stars, asserting his presence and scoring 16 of his game-high 36 points at the beginning of the second half. Edwards dissected Utah’s defense in isolation, which helped him get going in the third quarter.
“Anthony Edwards, honestly, he played a bunch of iso. So in those isolation situations, it’s easy for me to say we should pressure him more. I think there were a few possessions where I didn’t like our pickup point,” Hardy said.
“There’s also some moments where his athleticism and the force that he puts on his first step with the drive, when he plays off a step back, it’s a hard shot to react to. It’s hard for me to say take away everything from a guy like him. So he’s a heck of a player and he had a great night.”
On offense, Utah’s ball movement stagnated in the pivotal third quarter, as the Jazz had just two assists on seven made field goals.
Minnesota finished the game shooting 61.3% from the field and 55.3% from 3-point range in the 138-113 win, compared to Utah’s 50.6% from the field and 41.2% from 3.
Offensively for the Jazz, Keyonte George was a bright spot off the bench as he had one of his most productive nights of the season, scoring 23 points on seven-of-seven shooting and dishing out three assists.
“I mean, me just being me,” George said when asked what worked for him. “Ball was going in tonight, just being aggressive. Shot was falling.”
“Like I said, preparation is always the same. So I knew what type of shots I was going to get coming into this game and they just fell tonight. So continue to trust my work. I put in a lot of work before practice, after practice, late night, so I just want to continue to trust my work and everything is going to come around.”
Former Jazzman Rudy Gobert plays in second game at Delta Center as an opponent
For just the second time since being traded from the Jazz in the summer of 2022, center Rudy Gobert suited up and played against his former team at the Delta Center.
Gobert played in the two teams’ first meeting at the Delta Center in December 2022 — a 118-108 Minnesota win — but has missed the last three games between the Jazz and Timberwolves in Salt Lake City.
On Thursday, he scored 16 points, grabbed nine rebounds, and had five assists and four blocked shots in his return to Utah.
“I think it’s always a great feeling for me, just just landing on the plane and seeing the people and seeing the love and just also the energy,” Gobert said pregame. “I mean, it feels like home always. And again, it’s always short (being in Salt Lake City) during the season, but it’s always great.”
In his nine-season career with Utah, the 7-foot-1 Frenchman went from a skinny project center to one of the most dominant defensive forces in the league, and his personal trajectory followed the trajectory of the team under head coach Quin Snyder. During Gobert’s rookie season, the Jazz had one of their worst seasons in franchise history, notching a 25-57 record, but improving every year, making the playoffs starting in 2017, which was the start of a six-season run in the postseason.
The Jazz won 50 or more regular-season games three times in that span, including earning the Western Conference’s No. 1 seed in 2021, but could never advance past the second round of the playoffs.
Utah traded Gobert to Minnesota for a massive haul that included Walker Kessler and four first-round picks. Gobert has made the playoffs both seasons that he has been in Minnesota, and the Timberwolves are fresh off a Western Conference Finals appearance last season, the franchise’s first since 2004.
The four-time Defensive Player of the Year still spends time in Salt Lake City during the offseason, and was cheered by the home fans when he was introduced on Thursday night.
“I can really feel that they embraced me and they embraced us as a team and it felt really genuine,” Gobert said. “So I mean, I gave everything I got to this franchise, so when I come back in this community too and when I come back, it’s always cool to see some familiar faces and hear some positive words and love.”
Jazz crowd urges Chris Finch to put Joe Ingles in
Mike Conley and Joe Ingles are the other two former Jazzmen on the Timberwolves’ roster — Conley was out with a thumb sprain, while Ingles has rarely played this season, appearing in just nine games with an average of 3.9 minutes per game.
With four minutes remaining and Minnesota blowing out the home team, the Delta Center crowd began chanting “Joe! Joe! Joe,” until Minnesota head coach Chris Finch inserted Ingles to a standing ovation.
Throughout the last three minutes of the game, the crowd cheered whenever Ingles touched the ball and urged him to shoot, but the former Jazzman didn’t attempt a field goal. He finished the night with an assist and a rebound.
Ingles was a fan-favorite during his eight seasons for the Jazz and set the all-time franchise record for 3-pointers made with 1,071.
“He’s a legend. All the (former) guys, they come back, feel a lot of love, especially from the home crowd that we got here. We got the best fans, so I didn’t expect anything less,” Jordan Clarkson said. “Joe’s a legend, man, always and forever. He’s engraved in Utah culture and Utah basketball for sure.”
Clarkson — the final remaining player still on the Jazz from the Quin Snyder-era teams — is still very close with all of the players on those teams. He and Ingles, Gobert and Conley shared embraces after the final buzzer and still have a bond to this day.
“I think that that team just went through a lot, through COVID, the bubble shoot, just the NBA seasons, just grinding, being the No. 1 team in the league,” Clarkson said.
“We were a close-knit family and we were close. So yeah, I think those moments don’t die for us. We still look back and always get a laugh and how crazy were were, but at the same time, we see the growth in all of us. … We’ve just been there with each other though a lot of ups and downs, so I think that’s what made the bond, it’s unbreakable.”
