The Utah Jazz were already trailing the Phoenix Suns by 20 points in the first quarter on Saturday night.
At halftime they were 28 points behind. The Suns lead grew to as many as 34 in the third quarter, and they started to send the starters to the bench.
Devin Booker, Royce O’Neale and Jalen Green never touched the court in the fourth quarter, and the win for the Suns was never in question.
The final score was 134-109.
Phoenix, headed for the postseason play-in tournament, improved to 41-33 on the season. The Jazz, seven games away from an early offseason, fell to 21-54.
The Jazz closed the night with a lineup that featured just a single fully-rostered player — Brice Sensabaugh.
That’s now five straight losses for the Jazz who are looking to rack up as many losses as possible. With the way the rest of the schedule looks, they’ll probably be able get a few more before the season wraps.
The Jazz return home after a road back-to-back set (losses to the Denver Nuggets and Suns) to play two home games, against Donovan Mitchell and the Cleveland Cavaliers on Monday and the Nuggets on Wednesday.
After that, the Jazz head out on a three-game road trip against the Houston Rockets, Oklahoma City Thunder and New Orleans Pelicans.
That’s five straight games against teams that are trying to win. Important distinction: The Pelicans have no draft pick to look forward to, so although they are not a playoff team, they also have no reason not to try to win. The rest of those teams are postseason bound.
The Jazz’s recent losses have given them a nice cushion between them and the Dallas Mavericks in the lottery race. The Jazz are still two games ahead of the Western Conference’s losingest team, the Sacramento Kings, and with the schedule remaining it’s unlikely the Jazz could fall below the Kings.
It’s hard to imagine with the games the Jazz have played lately that there is any other team that has more losses, but there are indeed four — the Kings, Indiana Pacers, Brooklyn Nets and Washington Wizards — that have a worse win percentage.
So, as the days of the 2025-26 regular season wind down, it’s looking more and more like the Jazz will go into the draft lottery with the fifth-worst record in the NBA, and a 99.3% of landing in the top eight in the lottery and keeping their 2026 first-round pick.
On to the next one.