The J-Notes
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Utah Jazz: Five takeaways from victory over Orlando Magic

By Caleb Manser

Donovan Mitchell, Bojan Bogdanovic, Utah Jazz. Copyright 2019 NBAE (Photo by Melissa Majchrzak/NBAE via Getty Images)
Donovan Mitchell, Bojan Bogdanovic, Utah Jazz. Copyright 2019 NBAE (Photo by Melissa Majchrzak/NBAE via Getty Images) /
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Utah Jazz
Donovan Mitchell, Bojan Bogdanovic, Utah Jazz. Copyright 2019 NBAE (Photo by Melissa Majchrzak/NBAE via Getty Images) /

The Utah Jazz led by as many as 18 points in Tuesday night’s bout against the Orlando Magic, earning their 16th win of the season.

The Utah Jazz had an exciting home win over the Orlando Magic Tuesday night. One of the big keys to the game was to not overlook this team that is under .500, and the Jazz did a good job of that.

Orlando was held to only 20 points in the first quarter thanks to some staunch defense anchored by Rudy Gobert.  Their leading scorer for the season, Evan Fournier, was unable to find a rhythm early. Fournier usually gets going with easy buckets at the rim but this time was stopped in his tracks by his French pal.

Orlando had no choice but to rely on Markelle Fultz and early on. The Jazz continued to run the score up on the Magic in the second quarter, jumping to an 11 point lead at halftime. After a sluggish start to the third quarter, Quin Snyder called a timeout and got his team reinvigorated for a 14-2 run and an 18 point lead.

The Jazz ended up with the win on Star Wars night, and Orlando is already in Denver to take on the Nuggets later tonight with no break. Utah moved to 16-11 on the season, keeping within striking distance of the top five seeds in the Western Conference. They are two and a half games back of the Houston Rockets, and the Dallas Mavericks may (or may not) slide in the next couple weeks with Luka Doncic missing some time.

There will always be some good deeds gone unnoticed in an action-packed 48 minute game of NBA basketball. For example, Royce O’Neale‘s clutch box-out and rebound in the fourth quarter over Orlando Magic’s center Nikola Vucevic will probably go unsung throughout the rest of the NBA world. The Jazz offense continued to create and take good shots tonight, and adapted to Orlando’s defensive pressure in the paint. Emmanuel Mudiay in particular has been playing smarter basketball the past week than he did in October.

Having given those honorable mentions their due, let’s dive in to my five takeaways from the Utah Jazz win over the Orlando Magic:

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