Two 30-Point Quarters
The Jazz offense had been absolutely brutal during their four-game losing streak. Most notably in the loss to the Bulls, the Jazz were ineffective at moving the ball and simply couldn’t find a way to get the ball through the hoop.
Luckily, that all changed on Wednesday night as the Jazz put up an incredible first quarter that saw them get off to a 14-0 lead and end the period with a staunch 36 points. While they faltered somewhat in the second quarter, Utah came charging back in the third quarter where they put up 31 points and essentially sealed the deal before the period’s end.
It was a breath of fresh air to finally see Utah’s offense clicking on all cylinders. The two thirty-point quarters were demonstrative of just how efficient and versatile this team can be when they’re playing to their highest potential.
Related Story: George Hill, Utah Jazz Come Back Strong Against Denver Nuggets
And it was great to see Utah break that thirty-point mark in a period, especially given the low number of points they’ve managed to put up in some recent games. They managed to get up to 32 points in the fourth quarter during garbage minutes in the loss to Houston (who isn’t known for their defense) on Saturday, but before that they hadn’t had a thirty-point quarter since the loss to the Hornets on November 9th.
So while logging that many points in a quarter can be a misleading stat and not a guaranteed indicator of success, more than anything it was good to see the Jazz offense produce in such a way that it made those two high-scoring quarters possible.
Hill’s return to action certainly helped the offense and it seems reasonable to expect we’ll see a more cohesive bunch moving forward after what was on display in Wednesday’s win.
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Utah returns to action on Friday against the Atlanta Hawks in what will definitely be a good measuring stick of how much Utah has improved since its four-game slump. Will the team officially revert back to its winning ways of the five-game road trip? Or was the win against the Nuggets nothing more than a momentary resurgence?
We’ll have to hope that the former is the case, because the Atlanta Hawks are off to a solid start and present several match-up challenges across the board. These three positive takeaways were all great signs that the Jazz are headed back on the right track, but they’ll need to be sure to sustain that level of play moving forward if they hope to climb their way back up the standings.
All stats courtesy of NBA.com