The Utah Jazz (16-20) defeated the Miami Heat 98-83 in a slow-paced game on Saturday night
With a score like that, most people would assume that the shooting was terrible, but that wasn’t the case. The Jazz actually shot 55 percent from the field, but took just 71 shots in total. The Heat shot 42 percent on 82 attempts and the teams combined for just 35 free-throws. Those are surprisingly low numbers considering the shooting percentages and it was clear the teams wanted to go to their primary identities and slow the game down to rely on their defenses. The Heat took a 10-point lead after the first quarter, but the Jazz really turned it on after that. In fact, they held Miami to just 54 points in the final three quarters and outscored them by 25 points.
The Heat came into this in the second half of a back-to-back and it clearly hampered them here. They got off to a hot start, but didn’t have the legs late to pull out a win against a defensively potent team. Dwyane Wade notoriously struggles in back-to-backs and that was the case here, as he shot just 3-for-17 to accumulate eight points, five rebounds and four assists. Chris Bosh had a nice game though, as he tallied 24 points and seven rebounds against a dominant frontline. The passing was a big problem for Miami, as the Heat recorded just 14 assists in the loss. It won't get any easier in their next game, as they have to travel to Oakland to take on a Golden State Warriors team that has just two losses on Monday.
Utah got back to what they do best here and stifled the Heat en route to a big win. The star of the night was Gordon Hayward, who scored 34 points in a fantastic performance. Chris Johnson made a spot start here for the injured Rodney Hood and played great, accumulating 14 points, four rebounds, three assists, two blocks and two steals in 31 minutes. Rudy Gobert got his first start in quite some time as well and swatted away four shots despite failing to reach double-figures in points or rebounds. Injuries have really been hurting this team, but the more healthy they get, the scary they're getting. This is the front end of a back-to-back, as the Jazz will play the Los Angeles Lakers on Sunday in their next game.
