The Jazz have broken a three-game losing streak in style: defeating Phoenix 134-133 and surviving a superb performance by Devin Booker (49 points).
It was undoubtedly a fantastic game, one in which both teams went with the knife between their teeth and in which those from Salt Lake City ended up claiming victory by a breath. During the first bars of the match the domain was local; so much so that they were up 18 points in the first quarter. However, those from Arizona were equalizing the night to the point of living a few final moments full of tension. With 38 seconds to play, Lauri Markkanen put Utah up by three points. Phoenix was able to match it, but first they fumbled and then Damion Lee missed from 3-point line.
For the Jazz to end up winning, Lauri Markkanen was key once again. The Finnish player went up to 38 points (there are five games with at least 30 points this season) to receive well-deserved praise from his coach, Will Hardy. «I don’t know what Lauri’s ceiling is. I don’t think any of us would be able to tell based on what we see night after night.” Judge yourselves.
Markkanen had the help of Jordan Clarkson, who went up to 20 points, and Mike Conley, who finished with a double-double of 13 points and 10 assists. Already from the bench, Malik Beasley was spectacular to finish with 27 points converting 7 of the 13 triples he attempted.
the hour of defense
Devin Booker was huge with 49 points; however, only four of those came in the fourth quarter. The blame for this was the defensive improvement of Utah, which after conceding 58.2% in shots during three quarters, left Arizona in 10 of 27 during the last 12 minutes. This is how Monty Williams analyzes Booker’s performance.
“He was having a good game, but I pushed him too hard. That is not what we want to do in the long term. We have a lot of guys out and we needed him to score like that to have a chance to win. We are simply putting a lot of pressure on him to lead us offensively because we are not managing to stop the rival what we need, “explains the head coach.
Regarding the rest of the Suns team, DeAndre Ayton came close to the triple-double with 17 points, 10 rebounds and 8 assists, while Cameron Payne was also good with 17 points.
(Photo by Carmen Mandato/Getty Images)
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Utah survives Devin Booker’s 49 points