Utah Jazz-Hornets recap: Mitchell shines in Korver’s Jazz return

The Utah Jazz earned a tremendous road victory against the Charlotte Hornets that featured a sensational performance from the newly returned Kyle Korver.

Fresh off a nice win in Brooklyn, the Utah Jazz stayed true to their winning ways with an excellent road performance against the Charlotte Hornets. In one of Utah’s more complete performances of the season, they came out on top against Charlotte by a score of 119-111.

The Jazz got off to a great 33-19 lead to end the first quarter, which was a nice reversal from recent starts, and they never looked back. The Hornets managed to tie the game about midway through the third, but Utah responded nicely and never trailed in the contest.

Perhaps best of all, the Jazz broke out of their shooting funk in a big way by knocking down 54.3 percent of their shots from the field and 45 percent from deep. Both were their second-best marks of the season.

That hot shooting was by and large a result of the debut of Kyle Korver who made his return in a Jazz uniform in the contest. Korver was sensational, knocking down four of his six 3-point attempts to finish with 14 points in 21 minutes. He drained his first three of the contest and the floodgates were open from there.

The extra spacing he provided allowed Donovan Mitchell to have a vintage night as well, as he exploded for 30 points on 54.5 percent shooting from the field. Unfortunately, Donovan’s struggles from the perimeter continued as he went a discouraging 2-of-7 from distance. If he can continue to move away from forcing threes and instead continue to play to and excel in his strengths of attacking the rim and getting to the paint, he should continue to be a force.

Surprisingly, Korver wasn’t the only one draining threes in the bout and Joe Ingles wasn’t the next best sharpshooter either. Instead that honor went to Jae Crowder who had a nice bounce-back game from the perimeter, knocking down 6-of-10 attempts to finish with a season-high 24 points and a career-high seven assists. It was a great game for him that hopefully will be a sign of good things to come.

Lastly for the Jazz, Rudy Gobert was an absolute monster on both ends of the floor. He finished with 20 points while pulling down 17 rebounds and logging four blocks. He was simply unstoppable and gave the Hornets issues all night long.

Perhaps most shocking of all was how the Jazz managed to contain Kemba Walker. Walker has been a prolific scoring threat this season, but he was largely held in check by a solid team effort from the Jazz. He still managed 21 points on a solid 9-of-17 shooting for the game, but he went just 1-of-6 from three, 2-of-7 in the second half and was a team-low minus-17 on the night. Meanwhile, Jeremy Lamb was a bright spot for Charlotte as he scored 24 points on 10-of-18 shooting.

It was only one game, but the arrival of Kyle Korver seemed to spark some new life in this Jazz team. The added 3-point threat and the additional spacing it will create could very well be a heaven-sent for the Jazz as they aim to climb back to relevance in the crowded Western Conference after a slow start. Utah is now on a two-game winning streak, their first time winning consecutive games since November 12 and 14.

There was so much to like about this game as Utah was in control throughout, Donovan Mitchell came up big, Rudy Gobert dominated the paint, Jae Crowder found his shot and Kyle Korver was electric in his return.

Hopefully this sparks a turn in the right direction and will give Utah momentum as they aim to earn the sweep on their current road trip when they head to Miami on Sunday. From there, the Jazz will look to end their abysmal home court woes as they host the Houston Rockets and San Antonio Spurs in consecutive bouts.