Another record: Jazz top their 3-point record again in win over Hornets

SALT LAKE CITY — A lot of things went right for the Charlotte Hornets on Friday.

• Rookie guard LaMelo Ball had the best game of his young career with a career-high 34 points.
• Charlotte had a 12-point lead in the first quarter and even looked to frustrate the Utah Jazz with a smaller lineup and constant switching on pick-and-roll.
• Gordon Hayward had 25 points and 10 rebounds against his old club.
• Mike Conley even missed most of the second half with right hamstring tightness.

But all those weren't nearly enough.

The Hornets were just the latest team to run into the Jazz buzzsaw Friday in Charlotte. Even with tired legs and their point guard sitting out the fourth quarter, Utah picked up its third straight win, beating the Hornets 138-121.

The Jazz (18-5) have now won 14 of their last 15 games.

How dangerous is this team? Let's look at Bojan Bogdanovic's 90-second spree in the third quarter where he hit four straight triples.

The first one came via an outlet pass from Joe Ingles. The second one was on a Bogdanovic-led fast break where he just trotted into the pull-up three. The third was from a halfcourt set when the Jazz zipped the ball around the perimeter and found Bogdanovic in the corner. The last one was freed up when Bogdanovic used a Derrick Favors screen.

Four threes created in four different ways; that makes it hard for teams to keep up.

The Jazz set a new franchise record by hitting 26 threes on Friday — beating their previous mark of 25 that was set less than a month ago. Only two teams in NBA history have ever hit more threes in a game. Utah was 26-of-50 from the 3-point line. It's nearly impossible to beat a team shooting that percentage on that much volume.

"They played defense kind of like Helter Skelter and I don't mean that in a negative way," Donovan Mitchell said. "Like they use their life in their activity to their advantage. They're just out there you know trying to get into the passing lanes, pick you up full court, trap you, do different things."

One of those things: switch on picks. The Hornets started a smaller lineup in hopes to use their speed to guard along the perimeter in hopes of sticking with Utah's shooters. This type of defense has been the Jazz's Achilles' heel in the past.

"We knew coming into the game that we'd see different defenses, on and off the ball," Jazz coach Quin Snyder said. "Whether it be switching one through five, blitzing. So I think the biggest thing was we needed to be in attack mode, and understand that we can still move the ball, we can still be unselfish. The key thing was that the ball got to the paint, and we attacked the rim and things would happen from there."

Bogdanovic had 31 points on 7-of-10 shooting from deep, and Mitchell added 30 points (with the help of five made threes) and five assists.

Utah led by as many as 25 points in the second half, but had to survive a late Ball-led rally that cut the lead to 9 points multiple times in the fourth quarter. Mitchell was extremely complimentary when talking about the Hornets rookie guard, praising his game and also the joy in which he plays.

"I don't think I've ever seen him not smile," Mitchell said.

That said, he doesn't think the Jazz should have given the Hornets any hope late.

"Yeah, we're in first, but the team we want to be ultimately is one who doesn't let the team back into a 9-point game," he said. "We take that 20-point lead and we get it to 25, 30."

While Snyder said the Jazz lost their focus a bit (something that has been somewhat of a trend lately — though Utah has won each of their last three games by double digits anyway), there was another factor: Conley, who had 16 points, had to exit the game in the third quarter due to right hamstring tightness.

Conley is the league leader in plus/minus — and Friday might have helped prove that wasn't just a lot of noise. Conley exited the game with Utah leading by 21 in the third quarter, and before the quarter was over, the Hornets had gone on a 10-0 run.

The Jazz didn't have any immediate information on the severity of the hamstring injury. The bad news: It was a hamstring issue that caused Conley to miss a significant portion of last season. The semi-good news: That was his left hamstring. The real good news: Utah's 3-point prowess can probably make up for some missed games.

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