The Jazz Hit All the Right Notes: Nuggets vs. Jazz Game Two (August 19, 2020)
The Denver Nuggets took on the Utah Jazz in game two of their first round matchup. Game one ended up going to overtime and saw Donovan Mitchell (30 pts, 8 ast) and Jamal Murray (14 pts, 3 reb, 4 ast) duke it out in a playoff classic.
Right off the bat it was Nikola Jokic (28 pts, 11 reb, 6 ast) versus Joe Ingles (18 pts, 6 ast). Both guys got off to super hot starts and were leading their respective offenses early on. Utah was spending so much time focusing on Murray that Jokic was able to flourish. The first quarter was very evenly matched and both teams had some highs and lows on offense.
Both benches came in and looked solid at the end of the first. For Utah, resident spark plug Jordan Clarkson (26 pts, 4 reb, 3 ast) and Emmanuel Mudiay (5 pts) helped the Jazz grow a small lead by the end of the first, and continued their strong play into the second. Clarkson’s been a real hit or miss player for Utah. When he’s hot, he’s hot, but when he’s cold he’ll still take a lot of shots and it could end up hurting the team.
As for Denver, Jerami Grant (8 pts, 3 reb) and Monte Morris (10 pts, 4 ast) looked great off the bench. Both made a shot from deep and helped out in the scoring column for the Nuggets. Morris has been shooting the ball really well from three, and Grant is one of the most versatile players on the Nuggets roster. He can impact the game in so many ways.
Michael Porter Jr. (28 pts, 6 reb) has been absolutely ridiculous in the bubble, and showed off some more of that talent in the second quarter. He continued his hot streak from three and was able to simply shoot over whatever defender Utah put in front of him. In addition to his innate shooting ability, he put on a nice display driving to the rack, too, with a giant and-one slam. His defense is super solid, too. The kid is just a bonafide baller.
Despite this hot stretch from Porter Jr., the game remained close for the majority of the first half. However, the Jazz had the advantage going into halftime because of the great play of Clarkson. Remember when I said he’s a hot and cold player? Well boy was he hot in the first half. He tallied 16 first half points on 6-12 from the field and 4-6 from deep. With his performance, along with a great showing from Rudy Gobert (19 pts, 7 reb, 3 ast, 2 blk), the Jazz were able to carry a 61-48 lead into the half.
While Utah got some more people involved in the third, namely Mitchell, Jokic and Porter Jr. continued to be the only people able to score for Denver. This resulted in Utah taking a commanding lead midway through the third, at one point making five three pointers in a row. Mitchell was finally finding his groove after a slow start in the first half, and the Jazz were on fire from three.
Murray started to pick things up a little, but the third was all Utah. The Nuggets looked like a lost puppy at times trying to defend Mitchell. He was getting whatever he wanted and if they did manage to contain him, he would just kick it out to a teammate for an easy three. The Jazz were in complete control through three.
After Mitchell got things going, things were over quickly for Denver. At one point the Jazz held a 30+ point lead, and the stellar shooting of Utah was just too much for the Nuggets to handle. Jokic and MPJ tried their best, but Denver was simply outmatched. They shot the ball with decent efficiency from the field and from three, but the Jazz were far and away the best team in game two.
Utah takes game two convincingly, with a 124-105 win over the Nuggets, and tie the series at 1-1. Tune in on Friday, August 21st at 4:00 PM EST.
