Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Jazz entered Friday's game with a 19-20 record — the same mark they had after 39 games last season.
"I would say the record is the only way it feels similar," Jazz coach Will Hardy said. "The difference? The obvious one is we're trending in a far different direction at this point than we were last year."
Last season at this time, the Jazz were in the midst of a five-game losing streak. This season? They are playing some of the best basketball in the NBA — and that trend continued Friday.
The Jazz won their fourth straight game Friday with a 145-113 victory over the Toronto Raptors at the Delta Center.
The Jazz have now won 10 of their last 12 games and 13 of their last 17. And with Friday's win, Utah moved into play-in positioning as the 10th seed in the Western Conference. It's still early in the season, but that's a far cry from where the Jazz were a month ago.
The Jazz had three players score over 20 points Friday and were led by Lauri Markkanen, who had 22 points and nine rebounds on the night. Jordan Clarkson had 21 points, and Collin Sexton had 20 points and five assists in only 20 minutes.
The secret Friday was a masterful game plan, which was evident late in the game. Toronto shot the heck out of the ball Friday night. Entering the fourth quarter, the Raptors were 16-for-24 from 3-point range. Yet, the Jazz still led by 20.
The plan for the Jazz was to take away the paint from Scottie Barnes, Pascal Siakam and everyone else. Utah wanted to force the Raptors into midrange shots and then get the rebound.
Mission accomplished.
Toronto shot 38% from inside the arc and just 42% in the paint, and the Jazz gobbled most of the most misses to outrebound the Raptors by 25.
"We did a good job shifting," Hardy said. "The guys on the ball did a good job of containing the initial drive. Siakam and Barnes are both big, athletic, strong drivers. I thought the primary defender did a very good job tonight of not needing as much help with their close-out defense. We forced them into a bunch of mid-range shots in the first half."
Added Sexton: "When someone gets beat, we were there for our teammate."
Utah led by 17 at halftime, and the Raptors never got any closer than that in the second half as the Jazz ran away with the easy win.
Markkanen got going with a 12-point third quarter, and it was curtains after that. Rookies Taylor Hendricks and Brice Sensabaugh even got some time at the end of regulation, with Sensabaugh scoring his first NBA points.
The Jazz are now 20-20 on the season, the first time they've been at .500 since they had a 1-1 record. And that provides a different challenge to what Hardy and his team faced last year at this time.
"This time last year, my messaging would have been like we're not going to be too low, we're trying to take it day-by-day," Hardy said. "My messaging this year would be the flip side: We're trying not to ride too high. We played well lately for sure, but we can still get better, and we've got to try to maintain that level in our approach."
