Now THIS is how I like the Utah Jazz to lose basketball games; have the lead most of the game, find success with defense and energy, and barely lose at the very end when the other team finally remembers that they’re going up against a bunch of G-Leaguers and rookies. The Jazz were the easier team to root for throughout the night. They were more physical, more assertive, more vibrant, while the Nuggets meandered through the motions all night, only winning it at the end with sheer firepower. It’s especially nice when these tanking games are close – evaluation is easier and more important when the guys are playing in high-leverage situations, and when the other team cares about the win as well. So how did the youngsters stack up the former champion (and honestly, pretty disappointing) Denver Nuggets? Spoiler alert – there was a lot to like.
After starting the game off with 3 first quarter fouls, it took Ace a little while to regain the momentum that’s been propelling him to potentially All-Rookie team heights the past few weeks. He finished the game with 5 fouls, and a lot of them weren’t pretty, either; his youth and unrestrained desire to make an impact on the game was definitely visible. There were some beautiful moves, strong displays of athleticism, and star-esque shots here and there, but on the whole? Ace fouled too much and passed too little.
Kennedy sort of reminded me of 2026 draft prospect Tyler Tanner in this game – obviously undersized (the Nuggets announcers theorized 5’10) but just a dynamo on both ends of the court. The Nuggets point-of-attack defenders could not stay in front of Chandler all night, essentially rolling out a red carpet every time he dribbled the ball into the half court. On the other end, Chandler was only given 1 steal in the stat sheet, but he must’ve had triple that number of deflections; his fingerprints were all over this game. Sometimes he struggled with rotations (the Nuggets got quite a few open threes to end the game) but this was an impressive game from the 10-day player.
I originally had Filipowski listed with a lower grade – it seemed that a lot of the teams best moments happened without him on the court – but then I reconsidered; Filipowski was only off the court in those moments because Will Hardy knew that if Flip was playing the Jazz’s steadily growing lead would quickly accelerate its development. He felt like he was a step above the rest of the team offensively, able to get to his spots whenever and wherever he wanted. This was a common theme throughout the game, but Filipowski seemed to see red when Jokic was guarding him.
All Elijah needed to do to solidify an A grade (something I’m sure he really cares about) was not have one of the worst offensive games of his Jazz tenure. Inversely, this might be Harkless’s magnum opus of defensive outings, and that’s saying something. The Nuggets could not complete two successful passes in a row while Harkless was on the court – his hands were here, his hands were there, his hands were everywhere. Once again, he battled valiantly in the post against Jokic, and was a key reason Nikola had 7 ugly turnovers tonight. Even more than that, Harkless set the tone of one of the most fun Jazz games of the season. That won’t get counted in the stat sheet, but his influence was just about as all-encompassing as possible.
This was, by my money, clearly Konchar’s best game while donning the Utah purple and white. An efficient 16 points, a loud 8 rebounds, and constant, nagging activity on both ends of the court. Players who play like Konchar did tonight are found on every contending team in the league, because they can bring so much value without touching the ball. These are the types of games that endear a player to a fanbase; hustle is a necessary ingredient if you want to be remembered a decade after you leave the team. I’m hoping that Konchar sticks around, because he’s currently on the trajectory to be inducted into the “Utah Jazz deep role player Hall of Fame”, alongside heroes like Trevor Booker and Kris Dunn.
Bez wasn’t as in-your-face as some of our other defensive stalwarts were this game, but he fit the tone of the Jazz either way. I worry that the offense is just too far behind his defense for him to carve out a consistent role in the NBA – for example, Harkless wasn’t great on that end tonight but Mbeng was just invisible. But, your grade can only dip so far when it’s clear that your defense alone is changing the game. The Jazz might’ve set a season record in deflections tonight, and Mbeng was a big part of that, so I can’t drop the grade below a B-.
I don’t think there’s a non all-star, non blue-chip prospect in the league who gets more glowing reviews from opposing announcers than Brice Sensabaugh. While we didn’t see much of Brice during the big Jazz run of the 2nd half, his dynamite 1st half shot-making kept the Jazz in it and perhaps made the later momentum possible. He’ll never be a stalwart defender, but I don’t care what anyone says – his activity level on that end has been very slowly but nonetheless steadily improving as the season has progressed. There were some bad shots tonight (it wouldn’t be the Brice we love without them), but he made some! A cool 6 assists as well – this was not a shabby night for the 3rd year microwave scorer. Still, I’m glad that the team finished the game without him. He might’ve made for some more cohesive offensive sets as the team stalled in the final 5 minutes, but it was good for the other guys to learn how to function without this go-to guy.
I can’t justify the grade going too high with only 12 minutes of action, but those 12 minutes popped off the screen. He played like he was back at Kentucky again – 4 offensive rebounds in only a quarter of playtime is a skill you can hang your hat on. The defense was unfortunately rough. It’s hard to figure out exactly what his role looks like on a winning team as a shorter center who can’t anchor a defense, but he’s a fun guy to have around to gobble up rebounds and set bruising screens.
Williams benefitted the most from the Nuggets horrendous half court defense. Even with a weak handle and sometimes-lackluster burst, Williams blazed past Nuggets defenders, both off the catch and on the roll. This has been said before, but the weight and strength that Williams has put on throughout the season is really remarkable – it went from being his most glaring weakness to now a key part of his developing game on both ends. The Jazz scored their most paint points of the season against the Nuggets, and that would’ve been impossible without each and every bench-press rep that Cody has sweated out as the season has gone on. The wingspan seemed longer than normal, the ball flowed whenever he caught it, he was quick in transition – these are the games that will make Cody Williams a playoff contributor as soon as next year.