Utah Jazz were historically good in home rout of Spurs

The Utah Jazz won their fourth game in six tries with a historically explosive offensive effort against former Ute Jakob Poeltl and the San Antonio Spurs.

To say that the Utah Jazz haven’t been quite themselves at home this season doesn’t quite capture the situation. The fact that they entered Tuesday’s game against the San Antonio Spurs with a 2-6 record within the friendly confines of Vivint Smart Home Arena is nothing short of shocking.

As J-Noter Jared Woodcox puts it, home games haven’t felt like home games lately. In fact, when last the Jazz took the court at the Viv, they suffered their worst home loss in nearly six years (and second-worst of all time) — a 33-point embarrassment at the hands of the Indiana Pacers.

Clearly, that’s not the kind of history you ever want to make. So, in order to clean the slate, the Jazz went out and made the good kind against the Spurs, setting a new team record with 20 made 3-pointers en route to a 139-105 beatdown of San Antonio.

Donovan Mitchell led the way for Utah with 20 points, accounting for four of the triples himself. Kyle Korver added 15 points in 15 minutes, banging home three threes of his own. Really, though, the Jazz were lights-out from top to bottom in a game that saw seven Jazzmen hit double figures, with several more knocking on the door.

And the long-range bombs weren’t even the only historical aspect of the team’s offensive explosion.

The Jazz’s 139 points were the most they had scored in any game since dropping 140 on the Toronto Raptors more than six years ago and that game went to three overtimes. You have to go all the way back to a 1986 game against the Dallas Mavericks to get see 139 points scored in regulation.

For the record, the Jazz went 0-for-2 from distance in that game. Talk about doing it the hard way.

A big factor in the offensive outburst against the Spurs was the team’s excellent ball movement. The Jazz’s 38 dimes on Tuesday were the most they’ve accrued since putting up the same number against the LA Clippers a year ago.

Here’s a fun fact for you — no Jazz player notched double-digit assists in either contest. But that’s when the current iteration of the Jazz are at their best — when everyone is involved and making the extra pass.

Now, selfishly, I need to shout-out the opponent, because former University of Utah star Jakob Poeltl scored a team-high 20 points on 9-of-11 shooting in the game. To that, I say GO UTES!

With the win, the Jazz improved to 12-13 on the season. They’ve now won four of their last six games and moved to within a game and a half of the West’s top eight.

Mitchell, Korver and the crew will be back in action on Thursday against the Houston Rockets. Here’s to hoping that home cooking continues to taste this sweet.