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Sarah Todd
Guest
Utah Jazz guard Joe Ingles (2) moves around Houston Rockets forward Anthony Lamb (33) as the Utah Jazz and the Houston Rockets play an NBA basketball game at Vivint Arena in Salt Lake City on Saturday, May 8, 2021. | Annie Barker, Annie Barker, Deseret News
Utah beat Houston, 124-116, and became the first team in the NBA to reach 50 wins this season.
The Utah Jazz beat the Houston Rockets, 124-116, becoming the first team to reach 50 wins this season.
High Notes
- If we’re being completely honest, this game was more like practice for the Jazz than anything else. The Rockets came, once again, with multiple players missing and a majority of their rotation was either rookies, G-Leaguers or two-way players. The Jazz pulled ahead easy in the first quarter, played around and got sloppy in the second, but then pulled it together and basically put the game away in the third. It wasn’t their best game and it wasn’t their worst.
- In the first minute of the fourth quarter, Georges Niang tied a career high of 24 points by hitting his sixth 3-pointer of the night. Bojan Bogdanovic had a career-high night on Friday and Niang equaled his career-high the next day. Good for them!
- The Houston Rockets came into the game on the second night of a back-to-back after playing the Milwaukee Bucks and even though they were missing most of their team they still competed against the top team in the league. You’ve got to give that team credit and the players on the court credit for trying to make a name for themselves.
- Jordan Clarkson’s crossover is sick.
- Royce O’Neale had a really nice game with 13 points, going 3 of 6 from 3-point range.
- The Rockets didn’t have anyone over 6-foot-6 playing and they had a little bit of success playing small against the Jazz. They didn’t have a choice, but good on them for working with what they have, and it’s good for the Jazz to see different stuff.
- DaQuan Jefferies had an insane dunk in the fourth and put Rudy Gobert on a poster. Hugely athletic and impressive dunk.
- That being said, Gobert being a deterrent in the paint, blocking shots and just being himself on the defensive end was a big reason that this one didn’t get away from the Jazz in the second quarter.
- Hey! That was the last back-to-back set of the season for the Jazz. That means a little more rest from here until the postseason.
Low Notes
- Niang was given a technical foul after he hit that 3-pointer in the fourth quarter that tied his career-high in points for “taunting.” What could Georges possibly have done? Looked at the player that he shot over in a way that was intimidating? Pumped himself up? Talked a little trash to the Rockets’ bench? Who cares. Let them play the game and get into it a little bit.
- The Jazz could have done themselves some favors and not been so sloppy, letting the Rockets hang around. The starters could have gotten a little more rest and we could have gotten some Udoka Azubuike minutes now that he’s been taken off the injury list. But I don’t think we’re going to get too worried or mad about the Jazz not caring about this game. It wasn’t really one to care about.
Flat Notes
- The Rockets have long been eliminated from the playoffs, they have the worst record in the league and they’re playing with a roster full of injured players. Even some of the guys that were playing on Saturday were playing through injuries. When a game can basically be a scheduled win for any team in the league, things are bad and that’s where the Rockets are.
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