Jazz Cruise By Warriors, Move Into 6th

Golden State Warriors (30-22) at Utah Jazz (30-24)

• See? I do remember how to do game logs. Back to the regular format of these updates.
• (1st 4:48) 17-9. I will be providing no player scores tonight thanks to the JumboTron apparently malfucntioning at ESA. I’ll have to use the Utah Jazz App or my memory, which is unreliable. So far, the Jazz look great. Getting lots of open looks, feels like the lead should be even larger. The Warriors, on the other hand, look flat.
• Welcome back, Hayward!
• (2:14) 21-13. Warriors really look out of sync. It feels like a blowout but I’m not about to get carried away, Jazz just look better.
• (End 1st) 26-19. I reiterate that the Jazz look better tonight. Far cry from the lethargic performance last time GSW was here. No clue who’s leading the team in scoring, I will check at the half.
• (2nd 8:52) 36-26. Warriors seem rattled as evidenced by Lee picking up a technical after a Burks 3. This is fun for Jazz Nation so far. Jazz playing great team basketball and I can’t think of anybody for Utah that is having a poor game.
• (5:20) 45-40. Signs of life, and outside shooting, from GSW. Jack and Curry are really heating up. I recall both of them scorching us last time yet I still don’t feel all that nervous.
• Just like that, the Jazz quickly get the lead back to 10.
• (2:20) 56-47. This quarter has featured very brief runs with the Jazz still looking in control of the game.
• (Half) 58-53. Okay, I knew Stephen Curry was having a good game but he’s got 18 points? That’s a bit surprising still. Jack has 13, which is not surprising. For how much I talked about GSW being out of sync they’re shooting over 54% but I maintain that the feel of the game has favored Utah all the way as somebody who is in attendance. Jazz have more balanced scoring with 10 points apiece from Hayward, Jefferson, and Millsap.
• Great. Now the internet data is switching to 4G and LTE on a whim and it’s causing my updates to post on the whims of…who knows what. (Edit later: I’m not going back to try and remember. Oh well, 2nd half didn’t need a lot of updates anyway.)
• GSW cut the lead to 1 but never led. If memory serves, they’ve never tied or led the entire game.
• For the Warriors it’s been Curry and nobody else. Sure, Jack and Lee have been good but Curry is trying to carry the load. Big Al has 9 points this quarter. Solid.
• (End 3rd) 87-79. Nothing to say. Lead is 8 but Jazz still in control.
• (4th 8:54) 93-87. Curry is lighting it up. Thankfully Hayward and Jefferson are performing well. Lee just picked up 5th foul. Jack may get 20-10 tonight for GSW. He’s at 19-9 right now (the 9 are assists).
• (2:27) 111-94. Burks with a dagger 3! G’night everybody!
• (Final) 115-101.

Postgame: Amusingly, Jack didn’t score nor get an assist after I noticed he was that close to a 20-10 game. I’m cool with it. Curry only scored 11 in the 2nd half after dropping 18 in the 1st. The Jazz finally played a strong 48 minutes. From start to finish they played hard and looked like the better team. This was a fun, refreshing win. I’m glad the All Star Break didn’t seem to slow down their momentum and it was great to see Hayward back, who didn’t look like he’d even missed any time by picking up where he left off. Really pleased with the team right now and this win strengthens my belief that the trade deadline (which is Thursday, not Friday as I incorrectly said yesterday) will pass without the Jazz making any moves. Playing quite well and all this without Mo Williams. This was the final game before the trade deadline for Utah so now Jazz Nation and the Jazz players spend an anxious two days waiting to see what happens. Then hopefully we can finally come out on top in one of these close games against the Clips.

Next Game: Utah Jazz at Los Angeles Clippers. Saturday, February 23, 8:30 PM MST.