Utah Jazz break San Antonio Spurs streak, Win in Salt Lake City 91 – 81 – NBA Recap
Utah Jazz broke the 11 game winning streak of the San Antonio Spurs by defeating them 91-84 here at Salt Lake City. The Spurs were playing without their big 3, namely Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker. Coach Gregg Popovich
decided to leave them back in San Antonio to get some rest as the Spurs played the second of five games in seven nights.
Devin Harris scored 25 points for Utah, including 12 points in the 4th quarter to bring the trailing Jazz back in the game and seal the victory. The Spurs had no big scorer for the night, with Gary Neal and Tiago Splitter
both scoring team high 14 points coming off the bench.
Utah led the game 23-19 at the end of the first period. The second quarter was very tight, with a number of ties and lead changes between the two teams. Utah scored the first 3 points of the quarter to extend their lead to 26-19,
the largest in the period.
San Antonio came back and took a 2 point lead with a 3 pointer by Patrick Mills. Utah again took a one point lead with 4:59 remaining in the half. The Jazz finished the quarter leading 47-44.
The Spurs were trailing by 1 with just over a minute left in the third quarter when Danny Green made his only 3 pointer of the night and Matt Bonner blocked Alec Burks shot on the other end, scored a jump shot to follow and gave
the Spurs a 68-64 lead going into the final period.
Bonner started the 4th quarter with a 3 pointer to extend the Spurs lead to 7 points. Utah Jazz got the wakeup call and went on an 8-0 run to tie the score at 75 with a Devin Harris layup. Gary Neal shot a 3 pointer
to get the Spurs back up by 3 but Harris replied with a 3 of his own to tie the score at 78 again. Harris then scored 7 Utah points in a row, including another shot from beyond the arc, to give Utah an 84-80 lead with 2:23 left in the game.
Paul Millsap then took over for Utah, scoring 4 points and then putting 2 free throws in to lead a 6-0 run and give Utah a definitive 90-82 lead with only 30 seconds left in the game. Utah went on to win 91-84.
"Fourth quarter was important for us. We got down a little bit, but we didn't lose our poise. We had to fight back. Defensively, I thought we picked it up a little bit. We got in transition offensively and made some things happen”
said Utah guard Devin Harris.
Harris was amazing with 25 points and was helped along by Paul Millsap, who scored 18 points and grabbed 10 rebounds. San Antonio had an off night, going 40.2% from the field and only 7 of 10 from the foul line. They were also
7 of 24 from beyond the arc.
Utah outscored the Spurs 50-38 in rebounds and had only 14 fouls as compared to 22 by the Spurs. They hence managed to get 33 free throw attempts, out of which they scored 25.
Utah are now tied with Phoenix at ninth place in the Western Conference and within reach of 8th place Denver Nuggets, who also won Monday night against Golden State Warriors. With the Dallas Mavericks also having the
same record as the Nuggers, four teams are battling for the final two playoff spots in the Western Conference.
Tags: