What a night.
The Jazz and Bucks—two of the NBA’s most exciting young teams—lived up the hype Friday night, battling back and forth throughout the game until the Jazz caught fire late and pulled out a 84-81 win in Salt Lake City.
In what was perhaps the most exciting low-scoring game so far this season, Utah led 82-75 with less than a minute left to play, but the Bucks fought back to within three and had a chance to tie in the final seconds before Khris Middleton missed a 3-point attempt to seal Utah’s victory.
Rodney Hood led all scorers with 23 points, while Gordon Hayward scored eight of his 18 points in the fourth quarter. Rudy Gobert (15 points) and Derrick Favors (11 points) also scored in double figures for the Jazz (24-25).
Middleton scored a team-high 18 points for Milwaukee (20-32). Jerryd Bayless went 5-for-5 on 3-pointers in the first 15 minutes … and then didn’t score a single point the rest of the game.
Giannis Antetokounmpo and Greg Monroe scored 14 points each, while Jabari Parker managed only two points on 1-for-6 shooting in the loss.
Friday’s Best
Utah’s front line of Favors and Gobert simply overpowered Milwaukee’s undersized trio of Monroe, Parker and Antetokounmpo. Gobert (15 points on 6-for-7 shooting, eight rebounds, five steals and three blocks) and Favors (11 points, 15 rebounds, two steals and five blocks) each filled the stat sheet, and they combined to dominate the paint on defense.
Over his last four games, Gobert has averaged 14.3 points and shot 23-for-33 (69.7 percent) from the field.
And Favors continued his week-long block party. He had four blocks on Monday against the Bulls, six on Wednesday against the Nuggets, and five tonight against the Bucks.
Key Stretch
Midway through the fourth quarter, Hayward hit a big, big three (from five feet behind the 3-point line) to beat the shot clock and kick-start Utah’s offense. His rainmaker broke a three-minute stretch where the Jazz didn’t make a field goal, and they proceeded to finish the game going 6-for-10 from the field.
Rudy threw down a reverse slam to beat the shot clock buzzer. Neto drilled a three to give Utah a 75-73 lead. Hayward sank another 3-pointer to give Utah a 78-73 lead with 3:14 left in the game. Hood put in a stop-and-pop jumper. And Hayward put the exclamation point on Utah’s run, converting a driving layup in traffic (and then flexing his way off the court after Milwaukee called a timeout) to push Utah’s lead to 82-75 with 1:32 left.
Significant Stat
The Jazz continued their suffocating second-half defense against Milwaukee, holding the Bucks to only 37 points on 13-for-32 (40.6 percent) shooting after halftime. Utah also forced 11 turnovers in the final two quarters, which led to 11 Jazz points.
Coach’s Quote of the Night
Notable
Utah’s now 20-0 when holding its opponent under 91 points. … The victory capped off a 5-1 homestand for the Jazz, who will be on the road (for three games) until after next week’s All-Star break. … Milwaukee’s Miles Plumlee was ejected for a Flagrant 2 foul against Joe Ingles with 1:19 left in the third quarter. … Utah’s bench scored only nine points—three each by Trey Lyles, Chris Johnson and Joe Ingles. … Trey Burke (illness) played for only three minutes before leaving the game for good.
Up Next
The Jazz will hit the road for a game against the Phoenix Suns on Saturday night. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m. MT and the game will be televised on ROOT SPORTS.