Al Jefferson powers Utah Jazz over Golden State Warriors – NBA Recap
On Friday night Gordon Hayward made a steal and converted it into a successful jumper at the death to help Utah Jazz hand over a 104-98 defeat to Golden State Warriors here at Energy Solutions Arena.
After this win Jazz are 3 games away from the 5th playoff spot in Western Conference. They received a huge boost from Al Jefferson who marshalled all players with 30 points and 11 boards while guard Devin Harris was also in the mix with 28 points
and 5 assists. Forward Hayward had 14 points and Paul Millsap netted 12 for Jazz, who played without their lead scorers Josh Howard and Raja Bell.
David Lee tallied 26 points to go with 12 rebounds for Warriors while Klay Thompson netted 23 and Jeremy Tyler chipped in with 14. Warriors are way out of the playoff picture and with a 21-33 record they are nesting amongst the bottom feeders of Western
Conference.
The Warriors stepped inside the arena without their key players as Andrew Bogut and Stephen Curry were absent from the game due to injuries.
As a result they were struggling with their offense all night long committing 17 turnovers and were outscored 38-30 in the paint. Though they got their chance in the 2nd stanza as Jazz trailed by 13 points but their lead gradually dwindled and
in the end they received their 36th defeat of this shortened season.
The opening frame remained highly contested and the scores were tied for 4 times before Jazz capped off the segment with a fragile 28-27 lead.
Warriors opened the 2nd frame with a blast as they pulled off a 16-2 run and grabbed a huge 43-30 lead. Jazz rebutted that with a 10-4 burst and trimmed down the lead to 47-40 deep into the frame. Tyler netted a pair of deuce and widened Gold
State lead to 49-40.
Harris hit one from down town which resulted into a 15-4 spurt allowing Jazz to change hands 55-53 with only 26.5 seconds to expire in 2nd but Lee came up with a layup which tied the scores at 55 apiece at the end of 1st half.
The game remained close in the 3rd and after some back and forth action with 4:03 in hand scores were tied at 71 each. They were tied 3 more times in the ensuing passage before Warriors concluded the stanza with a slender 80-78 advantage.
Jazz came out all guns blazing in the 4th as they raced away early with an 18-6 burst and claimed a 96-86 double-digit advantage. Warriors narrowed the gap to 96-93 with 7 unanswered points deep through the frame.
Utah pulled a 6-nothing run and widened the gap to 102-93 but Thompson came up with a long ranger and a jumper to shave off the lead to 102-98 with 46.8 clicks to go. Hayward finally sealed that deal for Jazz with a pair of freebies at the death, final score
104-98.
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