It was 364 days ago when the Jazz, a team already eliminated from the postseason, hosted the Nuggets, a team with championship aspirations. Behind a near triple-double from Kris Dunn, the Jazz stunned Denver to take home the four-point victory.
Although that game didn’t matter much in the grand scheme — Denver would win the title a few months later—it was a loss that stuck with Nuggets head coach Mike Malone. So when the same scenario played out Tuesday night in Salt Lake City once again — and a huge game against Minnesota looming Wednesday night — Malone was taking no chances when it came to resting his star players.
“We have one win here since 2015. … So I don’t care who is playing for them. We got to finally get a win,” he said before tipoff.
It turns out Malone was right. Despite the late scratch of guard Collin Sexton, head coach Will Hardy had his team ready to play in front of a raucous home crowd. Although the Jazz battled the Nuggets for 48 minutes, Utah couldn’t pull off the upset and fell 111-95.
“That’s a really good team we just played,” Hardy said. “The way we are built right now, the advantage may be where we can go with the ball to squeeze the game. It’s another night where there was a lot of good basketball our team played tonight. … We just had some stretches where we sort of lose the plot.”
After playing sparingly in January and February, Talen Horton-Tucker kept grinding and working at practice, knowing his time would come. Once he got the opportunity, he ran with it—and Tuesday was no different. He was the bucket-getter Utah needed with its top four scorers out, answering every time he was called upon.
He dropped 18 points in the first half to help the Jazz fight back in the second quarter before finishing with 24. He shot 10-of-22 from the field and 4-of-8 from three, adding three rebounds and two assists.
“For a majority of the game, he was our best player,” Hardy said of Horton-Tucker. “We were struggling to create advantages early in the game and I thought when Talen came in, his ability to drive downhill wasn't shocking. I thought he did a really good job tonight of attacking the rim, especially in the first half. … I thought he kept us in the game.”
“Talen has been sort of in and out of our rotation over the past week and a half. … More than anything, I was really pleased that he was ready to play both mentally and physically.”
There are very few players big enough or strong enough to compete with Nuggets star Nikola Jokic. However, the Jazz have one of those players who stands a chance against the two-time MVP, and Ömer Yurtseven proved it Tuesday night.
Yurtseven had a season-high in points with 20, adding 11 rebounds and two assists. He was efficient on the night, shooting 9-of-14 from the floor. He did all of this while matching up with Jokic every time the two were on the court together.
Utah entered the game 12-1 at home against Jokic, his worst record on the road against any opponent in his career. Jokic played like a man who wanted to end that streak when he finished the opening quarter with 13 points and eight rebounds, putting the Jazz in an early 17-point hole after one.
But that’s when Horton-Tucker and Brice Sensabaugh got cooking. They combined for 24 of Utah’s 36 points in the second quarter as the Jazz cut the deficit to five with just over a minute to play in the half. It didn’t last long as Denver found an extra gear, closing the quarter on a 9-2 run as Utah trailed 65-53 at the break.
The Jazz deserve a lot of credit for their resiliency in the second half. Every time it felt like the Nuggets were one bucket away from breaking the game open, Utah’s defense came up clutch with a stop. More than that, they found a way to answer on the other end of the court and keep their crowd engaged.
Utah would trim the deficit to six at multiple points in the third, the latest coming on a pair of Yurtseven free throws with just over two minutes to go. Horton-Tucker would get the Jazz even closer as his three with 1:26 remaining in the quarter made it an 80-77 game and had the Delta Center rocking. Although Denver would answer with a quick 7-0 run, Horton-Tucker gave Utah the momentum heading into the fourth when he drilled another three with three seconds left.
The fourth played out much like the third, with Utah hanging around just enough to make it a game. A Luka Šamanić bucket cut the deficit to seven again at the midway point, but that’s when Nuggets guard Jamal Murray decided he’d had enough. Murray hit threes on three straight possessions as Denver reeled off a 16-4 run to put the game out of reach.
Šamanić totaled the first double-double of his career with 15 points, 11 rebounds, and three assists. Keyonte George added 10 points and five assists, while Brice Sensabaugh chipped in 10 points and five rebounds.
Utah will close out the home portion of their schedule on Thursday night when they host the Rockets. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m. MST.