As They Rebuild, the Utah Jazz Are Now 8-3 and A Lot of Fun to Watch
The surging Utah Jazz beat the Los Angeles Clippers Sunday in a 110-102 thriller to move to 8-3 on the season.
They were again led by great perimeter play, Jordan Clarkson scored 23 points, and Collin Sexton kicked in 22 points from the bench. The Jazz was up by double digits early in the first half, but they blew the lead and had to rally after trailing for much of the third and fourth quarters.
After a blistering shooting performance on Friday to take down the Los Angeles Lakers, the Jazz had to reach deeper to gut out last night’s win and complete the Los Angeles sweep. The Jazz turned over the ball a whopping 20 times in their victory, but they outscored the Clippers 26-17 in the fourth quarter.
“Finding ways to win is fun,” Coach Will Hardy said following the game, per ESPN. “I’m very proud of the team to overcome 20 turnovers.”
The Jazz is the second seed in the Western Conference despite most of the “experts” projecting them to be a bottom-tier team in the league. The Jazz traded Donovan Mitchell (Cavs) and Rudy Gobert (Timberwolves) this summer and are supposed to be starting their rebuild. The draft assets the Jazz got in return: Lauri Markanen, Sexton, Malik Beasley, Walker Kessler, and Kelly Olynk said not so fast.
“I’m starting to get more comfortable in myself,” Sexton said after the game. “Just staying ready and being present throughout the game.”
Sexton had the game-sealing dunk when the Jazz was up by 4 with 54 seconds left. Clarkson could be seen cheering from the bench. The Jazz has surpassed all expectations of what was projected to be a down year. Whether or not they can maintain this level of play remains to be seen, but one thing is for sure: Utah is a lot of f****ing fun.
The Jazz plays the Lakers on Monday at 10:15 PM EST.
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