The Rockets gave one of the surprises of the morning by beating the Jazz at the Vivint Arena. The Texan team took the match 111-116 taking advantage of the fact that the locals could not count on Donovan Mitchell due to a concussion, which reduced the offensive power of the locals. Thus, Houston won its 14th victory of the course, equaling OKC but still unable to leave the last place in the Western Conference.
Stephen Silas’s men seemed to have the game against them in the third quarter, in which Utah started quite superior and began to open up distances on the scoreboard (75-62), but the success from outside allowed them to sign a partial 1-18 and reverse the situation for the last period. In total, the Rockets finished with 22 triples scored in 45 attempts (48.9% accuracy), and it was precisely a shot of three, in this case by Kevin Porter Jr., who made it 109-114 with 22 to go. seconds and left the duel seen for sentencing.
Porter thus finished with 15 points, although the leader of his team in this facet was Garrison Matthews with 23 thanks to his 5/9 from the perimeter. Jae’Sean Tate and Eric Gordon finished with 18 and 16 respectively, while Christian Wood posted a double-double of 13 points and 15 rebounds.
“We have done a great job in closing the match, executing our plays very well in the final minutes,” Silas said. “We have tried not to complicate ourselves. The poise of these guys has been impressive.”
The Jazz, for their part, have suffered their sixth loss in the last seven games, and, after a stretch of the season in which they seemed ready to hunt down the Warriors and Suns, they are once again left behind in the fight for the upper zone. In fact, those from Salt Lake City are already closer to their pursuers (Mavericks, three games away), than to the teams that are above them (they are four behind the Grizzlies) and with defeats like this, they are certainly not going to afford Reverse the situation.
Bojan Bogdanovic, with 29 points, was the top scorer for Snyder’s men, but not even he could remedy the lack of outside success that his men suffered throughout the match. Utah could not go beyond 10 triples in 38 attempts, in total contrast to the great effectiveness of the Rockets in that facet. All in all, Rudy Gobert’s 23 goals and Jordan Clarkson’s 19 helped them keep up the pace, but they ended up succumbing and aggravating their bad moment.
(Cover photo: Carmen Mandato/Getty Images)
