As the Utah Jazz have struggled to start the 2024-25 NBA season, trends have emerged: lots of points given up, struggles to defend star players, and an inability to score consistently. However, another occurrence is emerging—opponent milestones occurring during Jazz games.
Dalton Knecht of the LA Lakers tied the NBA rookie record for three-pointers made in a game on Tuesday night, a record he now shares with second-year Jazzman Keyonte George and two other players.
Knecht tied the mark on his way to a 37-point outing, which hit hard for Jazz fans since he could have been ours with the #10 pick last June. And Jazz coach Will Hardy expressed his displeasure with the Jazz's inability to guard Knecht after the game:
Utah Jazz HC Will Hardy said "everyone knew Dalton Knecht was going to shoot the next shot" except his own players 😬 pic.twitter.com/4FseQvNiK8
— NBA on ESPN (@ESPNNBA) November 20, 2024
But he wasn't the only one in last night's game to hit a milestone. LeBron James, the NBA legend in his 22nd season, hit his 200th game of 25+ points and 10+ assists in his illustrious career.
To put that one in some perspective, the next closest player in that group is James Harden, who has 179 such games. Hall of Famer Magic Johnson, once the unquestioned leader in this category, sits in 4th place, at 130 games.
And just a few nights ago, the Jazz faced the LA Clippers. In that game, James Harden officially passed Ray Allen on the NBA all-time 3-pointers made list, with the 2,974th 3-pointer of his career as the Clippers defeated the Jazz 116-105.
The Utah Jazz aren't strangers to giving up milestones, sadly. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar broke Wilt Chamberlain's NBA scoring record against them in 1984. Kobe Bryant netted 60 in his final career game in 2016 - his highest-scoring game since 2009. And LeBron James cleared the 39,000-point mark for his career a year ago against the Jazz.
Jazz alumni have had their own accomplishments!
Thankfully for Jazz fans, their own players have also reached milestones—John Stockton owns the NBA's all-time assists mark and the all-time steals record. Rudy Gobert won the Defensive Player of the Year award a record-tying four times.
Karl Malone cleared many scoring milestones as a member of the Jazz, everything from 20,000 to 36,000 points. He also holds the record for most free throws made and attempted.
Mark Eaton reached the 3,000-block mark, the second player to do so in NBA history at the time. He also holds the all-time blocks per game average at 3.5 a night. For perspective, no active player has cleared 2,000 blocks (Brook Lopez of the Milwaukee Bucks leads active players with 1,946).
With a rough start to the season and an unforgiving schedule ahead of them, this may be the start of a troubling trend for the Utah Jazz. Being part of another player's mark on history isn't what this Jazz team wants to be known for, though if they get Cooper Flagg in June, it might soften the embarrassment a bit.