Al Jefferson drops 31 as Utah Jazz thump Charlotte Bobcats - NBA Recap
On Wednesday night Utah Jazz visited Charlotte Bobcats looking to get back to a 0.500 record and they did accomplish the task in hand after edging the host’s out 99-93 at the Time Warner Cable Arena.
Bobcats, who were boosted by last night’s victory Orlando, hung close throughout the first half, but were blown away by a third quarter assault by Jazz. The Salt Lake City team were once again led by Al Jefferson, who tallied a
game high 31 points and 9 rebounds.
Jazz coach Tyrone Corbin showered praise over his centre, who has been riding hot off late;
"We're going through [Al Jefferson]. We need him to make the right plays. He's been scoring against anybody down there and we're doing good job spacing so he can get it to us if there's a double team. Al's playing at such a high
level right now. We're just feeding him and he's able to make it happen for us."
Paul Millsap was also in the mix with 16; Derrick Favors netted 14 coming off the bench while the Josh Howard recorded 12 in Utah’s 19th victory of season. The Bobcats were marshalled by Corey Maggette’s 25 points; Kemba
Walker chipped in with 19 while Byron Mullens recorded 16 points as the Bobcats failed to win back-to-back games.
The game remained closely contested early however late in the first quarter, Utah managed to gain an 18-12 advantage. Bobcats though capped off the segment with a 9-4 run and toned down the lead to 22-21.
Jazz maintained their dominance in the second but with the scores at 46-41; the Bobcats narrowed the gap to 48-47, with a 6-2 run. Devin Harris concluded the stanza with a trey creating a breathing space for Utah, 51-47.
With 10:06 left in the third, Charlotte were trailing by 53-49 but the visitors left them baffled as they raced away with a 21-5 spurt and claimed a mighty 74-54 lead.
Bobcats tried to make an impact with a 10-4 run but that couldn’t harness the double digit 78-64 lead. Enes Kanter’s layup capped off the third segment at 80-64 for Utah. Jazz cruised through the 4th period and entering
the last minute, they were comfortably placed at 99-85, before Charlotte used some slick shooting in garbage time to reduce their margin of defeat to 99-93.
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