Jazz Get Much Needed Win Over Warriors

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – The Utah Jazz were able to overcome the late runs by the Warriors to pull out the 108-103 win over the defending champion Golden State Warriors.

Joe Ingles led the Jazz with 20 points including 4-of-9 from downtown. Rudy Gobert added 17 points, 15 rebounds and 4 blocks. Jae Crowder scored 18 points off the bench but Donovan Mitchell struggled as he finished with 17 points on 5-of-26 shooting from the field.

📹| Rudy Gobert’s monster night.

17p | 14r | 4b | 1a pic.twitter.com/CZmEDXjy46

— Utah Jazz (@utahjazz) December 20, 2018

Stephen Curry led the Warriors with 32 points while Kevin Durant added 30 points.

Three-Pointer Filled First Half

Donovan Mitchell gave the Jazz a great start to the game by hitting his first shot attempt from downtown. Utah jumped out to a 9-4 lead before the Warriors went on a 4-0 run to trim the Jazz’ lead to one.

Following the timeout, Utah held Golden State scoreless for three minutes and the Jazz went on a 10-0 run that was sparked by Kyle Korver with two triples and the Jazz lead was at 22-14 late in the first quarter.

The Warriors answered with a 7-2 run and the Jazz were leading 24-21 at the end of the first quarter.

After inflating their lead to six, Golden State answered once again to tie the game at 35, forcing Quin Snyder to call a timeout.

Steph Curry hit two shots from beyond the arc that sparked the Warriors to a 48-43 lead with 4 minutes left in the second quarter.

Utah trailed by just one point when Curry was fouled on a three-pointer and hit all three attempts to put the lead to four.

The Jazz took a 56-55 lead at the half. Gobert had 11 points and 11 rebounds to lead the Jazz.

Curry scored 21 points in the first half in just 17 minutes.

Tightly Contested Second Half

The second half was very close as the lead would reach two points by either team but it was neck and neck for the first 7 minutes of the third quarter.

Just when the Warriors looked to go on a run, the Jazz would answer with a three-pointer, that happen three different times in the third quarter with two triples from Korver and one from Jae Crowder.

The Jazz reached their largest second half lead of the game, 81-76 with 2:39 left in the quarter.

Utah outscored Golden State 28-25 in the third quarter to take an 84-80 advantage.

The Jazz scored four easy points in the first minute of the fourth quarter to take an 88-80 lead and Golden State called a timeout.

Dante Exum came out of the short break with a nice drive to the rim to give the Jazz a 90-80 lead.

Golden State made their run with 4 minutes left in the game as they trailed 100-96. Kevin Durant hit a mid-range jump shot to pull within two points, 100-98.

Down the stretch, Utah had a big bucket in the paint from Ingles but Curry answered with his own difficult shot. Utah was up 104-100 with 1:40 left.

On that possession, Klay Thompson fouled Mitchell on a deep three-point attempt. He hit two of the three attempts to lead 106-100 with 1:30 left.

Durant answered with a big three-point shot to trim the lead to 106-103 with just over a minute left.

With 17 seconds left, Mitchell dribbled the ball off of his knee as he was driving to the basket and Golden State would have a chance to tie the game.

“You just try to keep grinding on the gameplan. You don’t want to give those guys open looks,” said Jazz head coach Quin Snyder on the defense late in the game.

Andre Iguodala missed the game-tying three pointer and Curry lost the ball out of bounds on the offensive rebound. Officials called it off of Ricky Rubio but after review they gave the Jazz the ball back with two seconds left.

Mitchell hit both free-throws to give the Jazz the 108-103 win.

Dub 😎#TeamIsEverything pic.twitter.com/Bh3s6o1Qm1

— Utah Jazz (@utahjazz) December 20, 2018

Up Next

The Jazz improve to 15-17 on the season and will be on the road for a quick trip to Portland on Friday. The Trail Blazers are 17-13 on the year. It will be the first of four meetings between the two teams with the second matchup on Christmas Day.

Last season, both teams won twice in the season series with each team winning a game at home and on the road. The game on Friday will begin at 8 p.m. and will be broadcast on AT&T SportsNet.