After a much needed win over the New York Knicks on Wednesday night, the Utah Jazz headed to the Pacific Northwest to take on a struggling Portland Trail Blazers team that had lost 4 straight.
The last time these two teams met, it went to overtime, with the Jazz prevailing 118-113.
This time, the Jazz would take control early, going up 38-30 after a quarter, with the newly minted starting lineup of Talen Horton Tucker, Collin Sexton, Simone Fontecchio, Kelly Olynyk and Walker Kessler having no issues with the young Blazers.
Sexton was especially good early, with 10 first quarter points to set the tone for the Jazz.
As the game went on, the Jazz opened up a lead as large as 33 points, and even led by 25 in the 4th quarter, before forgetting that an NBA game is 48 minutes, and allowing Portland to go on a 35-19 run to make things interesting in the final minute. Thankfully the Jazz were able to hold enough of the lead to prevail, 122-114.
Simone Fontecchio had arguably his best game with the Jazz, with 24 points, 5 rebounds, and incredible shooting stats (87/100/100). He played great defense and made an argument to stay in the lineup moving forward.
Talen Horton-Tucker had a great game as well, with 23 points, 4 assists and 4 steals, puncutated by a strong drive and dunk that should make the highlight reels.
The Jazz had 72 points in the paint, shot 53% from the field, and passed the ball well for much of the game, with 27 assists compared to 11 turnovers.
Collin Sexton finished with 27 points and 4 assists, leading the way as the primary scoring option for the Utah Jazz tonight.
The Jazz move forward with a game on the road at Sacramento on Saturday, with a 2 game winning streak on the line. They will likely have to do it without Keyonte George, who escaped serious injury as his MRI came up clean today. Lauri Markkanen should be available, he was held out tonight for rest and injury recovery.