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The Roundup—Jazz 85, Nuggets 81

On a night when their offense struggled from the opening tip until the final whistle, the Utah Jazz relied on their stingy defense to come away with their fourth straight win—an 85-81 victory over the Denver Nuggets Wednesday night at Vivint Smart Home Arena.

The Jazz (23-25) are now 19-0 this season when they hold their opponent under 91 points.

Gordon Hayward and Derrick Favors led Utah with 16 points each. All of Hayward’s points except one bucket (which he made with 1:15 left in the second quarter) came after halftime.

Rudy Gobert (12 points) and Raul Neto (10 points, four assists) also scored in double figures for the Jazz. Rodney Hood struggled for the first time in a month, shooting only 3-for-12 from the field (including 1-for-6 from 3-point range) for eight points.

Denver’s Danilo Gallinari led all scorers with 24 points and went 12-for-14 from the free-throw line. Kenneth Faried (15 points), Gary Harris (11 points) and Will Barton (10 points) also scored in double figures for the Nuggets (19-31).

Wednesday’s Best

Favors stuffed the stat sheet with 16 points, 11 rebounds and six blocks (one short of his career high). He now has 10 blocks in his last two games. 

Favors struggled with his mid-range shot throughout the game, but he came up huge when it mattered most, hitting nothing but net on a baseline jumper to give Utah a 81-77 lead with 1:28 left. He then pulled down an offensive rebound and made a free throw to extend Utah’s lead to five with just under a minute left, and helped ice the game when—after Hood missed a floater in the lane—he saved the ball for an offensive rebound with 7.0 seconds left (after a replay reversed the original call that Favors was out of bounds when he touched the ball).

His hustle resulted in two free throws by Hayward that gave Utah an 85-81 lead with 5.5 seconds left. 

Key Stretch

The Jazz outscored Denver 17-10 to close the game, but the momentum turned long before that.

Late in the third quarter, the Jazz fired up the crowd by blocking three shots in 12 seconds. Favors swatted a layup attempt by Nikola Jokic out of bounds (and then let out a rare scream of emotion), then rejected another layup attempt by Mudiay. After tracking down the rebound, Denver took the ball right back to the hoop ... where Booker was waiting to deny Jokic once again, starting a fast break that resulted in a layup by Neto (that cut Denver’s lead to one point) and a defensive intensity that lasted for the rest of the game—from that moment on, Denver shot only 5-for-24 (20.8 percent) from the field.

Significant Stat

The Jazz shot only 44.6 percent from the field, but they also held the Nuggets to 37.1 percent shooting. Their second-half defense was especially suffocating as Denver shot only 10-for-35 (28.6 percent) from the field.

Coach’s Quote of the Night

Notable

Booker threw down two one-handed tomahawk slams—first over Jusuf Nurkic and then over Joffrey Lauvergne—early in the second quarter. .... The Jazz didn’t shoot a free throw until the 8:13 mark of the second quarter. Overall, Denver went 25-for-33 from the line while Utah went 14-for-20. ... Trey Lyles scored seven points in 10 minutes. ... As a team, the Jazz blocked 10 shots.

Up Next

The Jazz will conclude their six-game homestand on Friday against the Milwaukee Bucks. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m. MT and the game will be broadcast on ROOT SPORTS.