San Antonio Spurs cruise past Utah Jazz 114-104, Extend winning streak to 11 – NBA Recap
The San Antonio Spurs defeated the Utah Jazz 114-104 here at the AT&T Center on Sunday night. This was the Spurs 11th straight win, matching the league’s longest win streak of the season. Tony Parker scored 28 points
for the Spurs while Manu Ginobili added 23.
The Spurs took a 5-0 lead to start the match after two consecutive field goals, and never trailed in the quarter after that. They remained ahead of Utah, despite the Jazz keeping on their tail. However, the Spurs pulled ahead with
an 8-0 run late in the quarter to finish leading 31-19 after 1. The 2nd quarter was much of the same, but the Spurs holding on to a comfortable lead throughout. They led by as many as 19 and finished the first half leading 57-40.
Utah came back into the game, cutting the Spurs lead down to 9 in the 3rd quarter, but Tony Parker made 4 consecutive free throws and followed with a jump shot to score 6 straight San Antonio points and brought the Spurs
lead back to 69-54.
The Jazz came back with a run of their own, going 9-0 to trail 67-75 with 3:12 remaining in the 3rd. Two free throws by Devin Harris reduced the Spurs lead to 6 with just over a minute left in the quarter, but Ginobili
scored 5 consecutive Spurs points to close the quarter and the Spurs led 85-76 going into the final quarter of the game. Utah outscored the Spurs 36-28 in the third quarter.
The Spurs regained their offensive momentum in the final quarter, led by Tony Parker. They went on a 10-2 run to lead 103-86 with 5:45 left in the game. Utah, however, was not going down without a fight, bouncing back with a 7-0
run to trail by 10, 95-105.
The Spurs did well to break any Utah streak and did not let them gain offensive momentum throughout and went on to win the game 114-104. Utah was 4 of 11 from the free throw line in the final quarter.
"We had a chance, and the free throws cost us a little bit in a tight ball game. We pulled to about seven or eight points (behind the Spurs) then we missed four or five in a row. That hurts you” said Jazz head coach Tyrone Corbin.
Tony Parker scored a game high 28 points, going 9 of 15 from the field and 10 of 10 from the free throw line. Manu Ginobili also added 23 points for the Spurs, including a 14 of 15 shooting in free throws. Tim Duncan had a double-double,
scoring 13 points and grabbing 16 rebounds.
Al Jefferson led the Jazz scoring with 19 points and 10 rebounds, but shot at only 39% from the field. Devin Harris had 18 points and 6 assists while Derrick Favors came off the bench to score a double-double for Utah, scoring
14 points and grabbing 12 rebounds.
Paul Millsap had a dismal night, scoring only 2 points while going 1 of 8 from the field, before he was taken out of the game.
San Antonio shot 50.7% from the field and 88.4% from the free throw line, which was the deciding factor in the game. They had only 69 field goal attempts compared to 93 for Utah, but still won the match. However, they got 43 free
throw attempts for the game, which was a season high for San Antonio. Utah shot 44.1% from the field and only 61.5% from the free throw line.
San Antonio have now won 11 in a row and are sitting atop in the Western Conference. Utah are now 1 win behind 8th placed Denver Nuggets.
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