The Jazz successful fall 120-117 to the Orlando Magic in a tight finish. Utah had stretches where they looked amazing and led by double digits, but Orlando chipped away and made enough plays to seal the win. The Jazz hit some big shots and the young guys fought hard, but key possessions and defensive lapses allowed the Magic to pull ahead in the fourth.<\/p>\n
Player Grades:Lauri Markkanen \u2014 A<\/p>\n
Lauri carried the scoring load again and played with his usual fire. 27 points, 7 rebounds, 12 of 21 shooting. Hit big buckets throughout and never backed down, even when the Magic made their push. Lauri didn\u2019t play many minutes in the second half but showed in the first half what the Lauri\u2013Jaren front court can look like. It was really fun to watch.<\/p>\n
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Jusuf Nurkic \u2014 C<\/p>\n
Did the dirty work on the boards. 3 points, 14 rebounds. Didn\u2019t do much on the offensive side, but the rebounding help give Utah extra possessions. Few too many turnovers hurt his grade a bit.<\/p>\n
Jaren Jackson Jr. \u2014 A+<\/p>\n
Jazz debut! 22 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists, 9 of 17 shooting, including 2 threes. JJJ was impactful right away. Made shots, played with swagger, brought size in the paint. His mismatch game in the post is near unstoppable. As he gets used to the plays offensively and defensively, it\u2019s going to get real scary. Super promising first game in Jazz purple.<\/p>\n
Keyonte George \u2014 C<\/p>\n
Not a whole lot to say. Went out with an ankle sprain early in the game. Key had 5 points, 1 rebound, 1 assist. Sad we didn\u2019t see him play much with Jaren. Hopefully he sits out next game and let\u2019s his ankle recover. He did have a nice assist to JJJ and a nice and-1 bucket before going out.<\/p>\n
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Not a ton of things to say about his performance, it was cut short by an ankle sprain. 13 minutes, 5 points, 1 assist. I hope we rest him and get his ankles healed up. He did have a nice assist to triple J and a nice and-1 bucket before going out.<\/p>\n
Ace Bailey \u2014 B<\/p>\n
Loved the energy from Ace tonight. 10 points, 3 rebounds, 3 assists. Didn\u2019t light it up, but he was flying around, crashing the glass, and competing on defense. You could tell he wasn\u2019t afraid of the moment at all. Made some tough bucket late down the stretch. Still working through the offense, but the effort and confidence was there, and that is what matter\u2019s right now. Also threw down a wicked windmill dunk.<\/p>\n
Isaiah Collier \u2014 A<\/p>\n
Really liked what I saw from him tonight. Played under control, attacked the paint, and set guys up for easy buckets. 20 points, 10 assist, big contributor that kept the offense rolling. Had some costly turnovers that hurt his grade, other than that he continues to stack up solid games.<\/p>\n
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John Konchar \u2014 B<\/p>\n
Solid glue guy minutes. 4 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assist and some nice defense. Didn\u2019t flash off the screen, but made some nice winning plays. Very solid role player.<\/p>\n
Kevin Love \u2014 C<\/p>\n
Again just solid veteran presence. 13 points, 6 rebounds on efficient shooting (3 for 2 from the floor, 3 of 3 from three, 4 of 4 from the line). Didn\u2019t go wild, but he helped offensively.<\/p>\n
Brice Sensabaugh \u2014 D<\/p>\n
Pretty rough night for Brice. Struggled to create any separation, his handle continues to get exposed against length. The shot wasn\u2019t there tonight, he needs to impact the game in other ways. 4 points, 3 rebounds, 2 assist, 1 of 9 from the field. Effort defensively was fine, but this is a forgettable one.<\/p>\n
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Cody Williams \u2014 B<\/p>\n
Cody continues to quietly impress. 0 points, 2 rebounds. He didn\u2019t stuff the box score, but his defense stood out all night. Had some shaky moments offensively, but made good reads and didn\u2019t force anything. He\u2019s carving out a role on this team, and it shows.<\/p>\n
Vince Williams Jr. \u2014 B<\/p>\n
Brought great energy and hustle. Active defensively, fought through screens, and did a lot of the little things. Didn\u2019t score, but his effort helped steady things. 0 points, 1 assist, 1 block.<\/p>\n
Kyle Filipowski \u2014 B-<\/p>\n
Solid in his minutes. Played physical, battled on the boards, and didn\u2019t looked overwhelmed. Didn\u2019t play much, but made the most of it. 9 points, 5 rebounds.<\/p>\n
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Takeaway:<\/p>\n
This was a perfect competitive tank game. The Jazz played hard, stayed in the game late, and showed real flashes without winning. The biggest take away is Jaren Jackson Jr. His debut instantly raised the ceiling on both ends, and you could feel how different this team looks with his size, defense, and confidence out there. What really stood out to was how well JJJ and Lauri played together, super promising. If this is just the starting point for JJJ in a Jazz uniform, things are going to get really interesting next year while still keep our draft position. Next game is against the Miami Heat, Feb. 9th, 5:30pm MT.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Jazz successful fall 120-117 to the Orlando Magic in a tight finish. Utah had stretches where they…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":590062,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3779],"tags":[7168,7,10511,1082,2241,568,957,496,8396,1678,955,1251,976,48,189,6,47,76,3883,5592,427,1299],"class_list":{"0":"post-590061","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-orlando-magic","8":"tag-ankle-sprain","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-brice-sensabaugh","11":"tag-cody-williams","12":"tag-fl","13":"tag-getty-images","14":"tag-isaiah-collier","15":"tag-jaren-jackson-jr","16":"tag-john-konchar","17":"tag-kevin-love","18":"tag-keyonte-george","19":"tag-kyle-filipowski","20":"tag-lauri-markkanen","21":"tag-magic","22":"tag-miami-heat","23":"tag-nba","24":"tag-orlando","25":"tag-orlando-magic","26":"tag-orlandomagic","27":"tag-the-jazz","28":"tag-utah-jazz","29":"tag-vince-williams-jr"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116033858262451763","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590061","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=590061"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590061\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/590062"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=590061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=590061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=590061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}