Driving an 8-game profitable streak and coming off consecutive wins towards the Oklahoma Metropolis Thunder, the Spurs entered the final word entice sport. Returning residence for a number of video games for the primary time since November 20 and coming in 13-0 towards sub-.500 groups, the Spurs ran right into a Utah Jazz staff that upset the Detroit Pistons the night time earlier than and had been out for extra blood tonight. Down De’Aaron Fox and chilly on offense after the primary quarter, the Spurs couldn’t sustain with a white-hot Utah staff that seemingly couldn’t miss, and regardless of a late rally to briefly tie issues up, the Jazz did what they did all night time: reply handy the Spurs their first (official) loss in 9 video games.
The Spurs had been a little bit asleep on the wheel to begin the sport, with Mitch Johnson calling a timeout simply three minutes in after consecutive Jazz threes had his staff down 4-10 early. Stephon Fort responded by aggressively driving to the rim for 5 fast factors and two steals on the opposite finish as a part of an 8-0 run, and Keldon Johnson entered and introduced his sizzling three-point capturing over from OKC, hitting his first three makes an attempt. The Spurs obtained the lead as excessive as 11 at 30-19, and whereas the Jazz hit 6-7 from three within the quarter themselves to maintain issues shut, the Spurs nonetheless led 40-32 after the primary 12 minutes.
Victor Wembanyama, who was again into he beginning lineup tonight, was attending to the rim with ease earlier than subbing out early within the second quarter, however the good vibes ended there, and the Spurs’ sizzling offense from the primary quarter fully deserted them. They began getting sloppy with the ball and settling for jumpers as a substitute of attacking the Jazz’ porous protection. On the opposite finish, they struggled to get stops, and the Jazz remained sizzling, taking a lead they might by no means relinquish simply previous the halfway level of the quarter on a 14-3 run. The identical issues continued to plague the Spurs all through, and Utah stretched the lead so far as 14 earlier than the Spurs scored the final 4 factors of the half to get inside ten, 60-70, after being outscored 38-20.
Issues weren’t any higher out of halftime, with the Jazz persevering with to get what they wished on offense whereas the lid traveled throughout to the opposite basket for the Spurs. The lead was out to 17 at 82-65 after Utah began on a 12-5 run earlier than the Spurs lastly obtained the memo to assault the paint extra. They obtained inside 10 a few instances, however the Jazz all the time had a solution. The Spurs had been additionally always getting stripped or lacking open threes, stopping them from occurring any sort of sustained run, and so they had been nonetheless down 87-98 heading into the fourth quarter.
Keldon scored the primary 5 factors of the fourth for the Spurs, and whereas Utah once more responded with threes every time, the Spurs saved grinding, utilizing the offensive glass and tightening up on protection to claw their means again. A driving Wemby dunk-and-one obtained them again inside three on a 9-0 run, and 5 straight factors from Stephon Fort tied issues up at 106 apiece, however that will be as shut as they obtained. To not get too repetitive, however once more the Jazz responded, this time with a 10-4 run whereas Wemby sat. Wemby re-eneterd with 4 minutes left, however no matter rally magic that Spurs had left was used up, and the Jazz had been again up by double-digits with 2 minutes left, and the Spurs went on to lose 127-114.
