Jazz's hot stretch continues with blowout win over defending champion Nuggets

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SALT LAKE CITY — Before Wednesday's game, Denver coach Michael Malone was asked why it had been so hard for his team to win in Utah.

The usual elevation claims, obviously, didn't apply to his team, and the Nuggets' trips to Salt Lake City weren't often during long road trips.

"The nightlife," Malone deadpanned. "It's Salt Lake City and South Beach — those are the two cities that you have to worry about your guys a lot."

Maybe Tuesday's squall chilled the Nuggets out? Or maybe the Jazz are just … good?

The once-floundering Utah team continued its remarkable run with a 124-111 rout of the defending champion Denver Nuggets Wednesday at the Delta Center.

Jordan Clarkson had 27 points and nine assists to lead the Jazz, and Lauri Markanen had 26 points and 12 rebounds. Collin Sexton added 22 points, and his 3-pointer with 5:45 left in regulation put the Jazz up 25 and caused Denver coach Michael Malone to empty his bench early.

It was the Jazz's third straight victory, their sixth of the last seven games, and ninth in their last 11 contests. In the past month, Utah has turned into one of the hottest teams in the league. And it didn't take long for the Nuggets to find that out.

Utah jumped out to a quick 14-point lead just six minutes into the game and led by 18 at halftime. The Nuggets never made a true push to get back into the contest.

That fact showed some growth for the team.

It was just 48 hours earlier the Jazz almost coughed up a 31-point halftime lead in Milwaukee. The memory of that was alive and well as the team entered the locker room for halftime.

"I think the other night scared us all to death," Jazz coach Will Hardy said. "So in a lot of ways, I didn't have to say much tonight. I walked in the locker room and they were all saying it before I did, and so I didn't say it."

The players had one goal: win the third quarter.

They did that, extending their lead to over 20 points before entering the fourth quarter. Utah was able to do it despite being in the penalty for the final eight minutes of the quarter and with Nikola Jokic scoring 10 points in those 12 minutes.

"It shows a kind of collective thinking," Hardy said. "When we talk about solving problems as a group, thinking as a group, it's a good feeling as a coach when you walk in and you hear them talking, and there's really not much for me to say."

The final margin was the closest the Nuggets got in the second half, and that only came after a garbage time run.

And of note: There were no availability disclaimers this time around, either. The Nuggets came into Salt Lake City fully healthy, and had gone 8-2 in their last 10 games. Denver just ran into what has warped into a Utah buzz saw.

"We've really come together for the last couple weeks," Kelly Olynyk said. "We know what we need from each other. We know what we need to do to win, and we've been playing really well."

Olynyk said it was key to not give a team with that type of firepower any sort of hope that they could make a second-half run.

"Basketball is a game of runs," Olynyk said. "If we let them get on a run and they get a little confidence, anything can happen. So I think we did really well and basically kept it up the whole time."