The Jazz continued their preseason schedule with a 105-90 victory over the Toronto Raptors Tuesday night in Salt Lake City.
The game was full of both struggles—the Jazz turned the ball over 22 times, including 12 in the first half alone—and a handful of highlight-reel plays, including a nifty alley-oop from Donovan Mitchell to Rudy Gobert in the first quarter.
Utah led early on before Toronto went on a quick 16-0 run to take a double-digit lead midway through the second quarter.
And that's when Joe Ingles came alive.
After missing Saturday's preseason opener due to leg soreness, Ingles celebrated his 31st birthday in style with a game-high 24 points. The Australian sharpshooter shook off some rust (he missed his first three shots and was called for a traveling violation) before catching fire with 10 straight Jazz points late in the second quarter. Ingles drilled two threes and put in two buckets in the paint to pull Utah back within nine at the half.
"That's who Joe is, and we've been encouraging him to be more and more aggressive from the 3-point line," Jazz head coach Quin Snyder said after the game. "In some ways it was good that he missed a few early. A couple years ago, he wouldn't have stayed quite as aggressive. So the fact that he missed some early and kept shooting was really good."
The Jazz kept rolling in the third quarter, opening the second half on a 27-4 run to take a 14-point lead. Rubio hit a leaning jumper and then canned a transition three, while Mitchell drilled a step-back jumper and Ingles found Gobert for an alley-oop slam to force a Toronto timeout. Threes by Mitchell, Ingles and Rubio extended Utah's lead against Toronto's second unit.
The Raptors closed the gap to five early in the fourth quarter, but back-to-back threes by Thabo Sefolosha and Grayson Allen—followed by back-to-back slams by Allen and Royce O'Neale—pushed Utah's lead back to 12.
Rubio (15 points), Gobert (13 points, 10 rebounds, five blocks) and Mitchell (12 points) also scored in double figures for the Jazz.
Jonas Valanciunas led Toronto with 18 points, while Kawhi Leonard finished with 17 points on 6-for-12 shooting. Leonard played 18 minutes, all in the first half.
Notable
Former Jazz forward C.J. Miles and former BYU star Kyle Collinsworth were both in Toronto's starting lineup. ... Danté Exum (knee soreness) and Raul Neto (hamstring) did not play for the Jazz. ... Utah shot 13-for-31 (41.9 percent) from 3-point range. ... Jae Crowder and Kyle Lowry picked up double technical fouls late in the second quarter. ... The Jazz dished out 25 assists. Ingles, O'Neale, Crowder and Alec Burks led the way with four each.
Up Next
The Jazz will continue preseason play when they host the Adelaide 36ers Friday night at 7pm.