Utah Jazz goes down in a second half slide in Ty Corbin’s debut match
The Utah Jazz’s venture started with the new coach and his debut was marred with a steamy performance from the Phoenix Suns as they skidded past Utah 95-83, 11 February, at the EnergySolutions Arena, Utah. Steve Nash scored 18 points and dished out 10 assists
in the tirade and headed the Suns straight to a victory that was supposedly Utah’s. As for those who have been under the rock, Utah’s Coach, Jerry Sloan, resigned on Thursday and called it a career to his 23-year tenure with Utah Jazz.
The Suns out-rebounded the Jazz members 47-45 and robbed the new coach of his debut victory. Phoenix was hot from the painted area and went 40-26 from the range and won the sixth game of the last seven.
Hakim Warrick scored 16 points from off the bench and centre Robin Lopez contributed a fair 14 points along with six boards in the win. The Suns coach later appraised Warrick’s game as he said, "I think he gave us energy. We were struggling a little bit,
getting outhustled on some plays and I thought that he just stepped up and really gave us the energy that we needed."
Deron Williams who is being shaded with the controversy surrounding him and the interim coach’s argument had team-high 19 points and 14 dimes in the loss.
Utah Jazz had a remarkable performance in the first half, going for 27 points with a 32.4 shooting from the field. They shot 65 per cent in the first quarter. After that, they could not carry the same offensive streak and went to score 13 and 14 in the third
and fourth.
Late in the final quarter with 11 minutes left in the game, the score was tied at 73-all. In the coming seven minutes after that, Utah let the Suns go with just two points. The Suns had enough, so they jumped forward in their defence and surpassed Utah going
12-2 in a run receiving five shots from Warrick. Ironically, Jazz missed eight vital shots and unfortunately gave away two bad passes during the skid as well.
Corbin later described the hard time the team faced in the second half when he said, "We ran out of gas. I mean, I don't know if it was emotions in the first half, when we showed up for the game, but the second half we just got away from everything we were
doing."
Paul Millsap who had 16 in the loss later shed light on the light and expressed that it was a very emotional game to play after their coach resigned. He said that the players were drained mentally and they have been had some tough days due to the losses.
One of the players who led the Suns was Warrick. The player stimulated the run going 6-for-8 in shooting as he came from off the bench. Jazz’s rookie Gordon Hayward pulled out 14 points going perfectly 5-for-5.
Channing Frye went down when the Suns went up. The player was mere 2-for-11 in shooting from the field. As for Jared Dudley, it was much worse. The player could only collect four points in a duration of 21 minutes and went 1-for-7 from the field.
For the Suns, Sunday vs. Kings, Tuesday vs. Jazz, Thursday vs. Mavericks.
For the Jazz, Tuesday @ Phoenix, Wednesday vs. Warriors, Feb. 23 @ Dallas.
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