The evening started out as a celebration of the team's new southern Utah-themed jerseys and court—and it ended with a blowout victory over the high-powered Golden State Warriors.
The Jazz outgunned, out-hustled and simply outplayed the defending champs on Tuesday night, taking the lead early and running away for a 129-99 win in Salt Lake City.
Ricky Rubio led the Jazz (22-28) in scoring with 23 points, while Joe Ingles (20 points on a career-high six 3-pointers) and Donovan Mitchell (20 points, four assists, four steals in 26 minutes) also had big games.
Derrick Favors logged a double-double with 18 points (on 9-for-11 shooting) and 10 rebounds in the win.
Golden State's All-Star quartet came out mostly flat against the Jazz. Klay Thompson led the Warriors (40-11) with 27 points on 12-for-17 shooting, but Kevin Durant (17 points) Stephen Curry (14 points) and Draymond Green (eight points) failed to make a consistent impact.
Tuesday's Best
Rubio was masterful in controlling the game. He consistently dribbled circles around the Golden State defense, getting to the rim for layups and finding holes to create shots for his teammates. Rubio finished with 23 points on 9-for-16 shooting, and he added five rebounds, 11 assists and a steal in 35 minutes. It was his sixth double-double of the season.
Key Stretches
The Jazz came out scorching, shooting 5-for-7 from 3-point range to start the game. Ingles drilled three 3-pointers in the first six minutes to help the Jazz to a 16-12 lead. Rubio drilled a three and then two free throws, and Gobert—after blocking Curry on the defensive end—threw down a two-handed putback dunk to give Utah a 26-16 lead with 3:35 left in the first quarter.
The Jazz kept things rolling in the second quarter, extending their lead from seven to 16 just before halftime. Favors grabbed a steal and threw down a thunderous two-handed jam in transition. Rubio burned Curry with a behind-the-back dribble and then got to the rim for a layup. Ingles drilled his fourth and fifth threes of the night. And Gobert stuffed home a two-handed reverse dunk off an alley-oop from Rubio to give Utah 69 first-half points.
After cruising through the third quarter, back-to-back 3-pointers by Joe Johnson and Rubio pushed Utah's lead to 25 with just over six minutes remaining in regulation. At that point, Warriors head coach Steve Kerr waived the white flag by pulling his starters out of the game.
Significant Stats
2:39
Mitchell picked up his third foul of the game with 2:39 left in the first quarter ... and then promptly found a spot on the bench for the rest of the first half. The Jazz were up 28-18 when the rookie sat down, and they increased that lead to 69-56 by the time he took the floor again at the start of the third quarter.
58.2
Utah shot a season-high 58.2 percent from the field, and that percentage wasn't artificially inflated by one or two hot stretches. The Jazz sank more than half of their field goals in each quarter (56.5, 65.2, 58.3, 52.4).
5
The Jazz out-Warriored the Warriors, connecting on 14 of their 28 3-point attempts (50.0 percent). The Warriors, meanwhile, shot only 5-for-25 (20.0 percent) from beyond the arc. They entered the night averaging 11.8 threes per game (No. 3 in the NBA). They also shot 0-for-4 from 3-point range in the first quarter, marking the first time all season that Golden State failed to make a 3-pointer in the opening period.
Coach's Quote of the Night
Jazz head coach Quin Snyder
Notable
The 30-point margin was Golden State's most lopsided loss of the season. ... The Jazz have now won three straight games. ... Gobert, Alec Burks and Jonas Jerebko each scored nine points in the win. ... Rodney Hood (leg contusion) missed his fifth straight game. ... It was Mitchell's 23rd game of the season with at least 20 points. ... The Jazz outscored the Warriors 58-46 in the paint, and the teams tied 14-14 in both second-chance and transition points. ... The Jazz grabbed 16 steals and scored 18 points off of Golden State's 20 turnovers.
Up Next
The Jazz will travel to Phoenix to face the Suns on Friday night. Tipoff is set for 7:00pm MT.
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