In the last round of the game, the Nuggets, who ranked 6th in the West, won the Lakers led by James by 37 points, and in today's back-to-back games, they ushered in the challenge of the 4th place in the West, 5 wins ahead of the team, and for the Nuggets, it can be said that it is not difficult to win. Let's look at the starting lineups of both sides first, the Jazz side is conley, Mitchell, O'Neal, Bogdanovic and Gobert of the five-man team. The Nuggets started with Morris, Barton, Gordon, Jeff Green and Jokic, and the combination was exactly the same as when they played against the Lakers in the last round. However, the Nuggets' recent injury list is relatively long, and this campaign is that Rivers Jr., Murray Jr., Pol Jr., Jama Kaolin, Dozil, etc. can not play.
Judging from the play of the two sides in the first half, the Jazz's offensive points are more dispersed, and the stability on the field is more sufficient, the entire half down, they played the Nuggets in the first quarter a 37-33, the second quarter was 31-25 single quarter to win 6 points, the entire half down, the score of the two sides was fixed at 68-58. Although the Jazz's halftime high score is Mitchell's 15 points, which looks like there is a gap with Jokic's 18 points, but the Jazz's 4-man double-double in the first half can be said to be a multi-point blossom, in addition to mitchell's 15 points we just mentioned, Bogdanovic also scored 13 points, Clarkson scored 12 points, And Gobert also contributed 11 points and 9 rebounds, it can be said that the Jazz used the integrity and discipline of the whole team to become the leading team in the first half.
On the other hand, the Nuggets, in the first half, only Jokic and Gordon had 2 doubles, in terms of rebounding, the whole team lost 5, and the assists also lagged behind the Jazz, and the two-point shooting rate and three-point shooting rate were also in the inferior position (three-point shooting rate Nuggets 7 of 22, Jazz 22 9; two-point shooting rate, Nuggets 28 17, Jazz 27 of 19). To some extent, the Nuggets have improved their grip and state in the confrontation with the Lakers, but this game is a bit dull against the Jazz. Jeff Green contributed 26 points in the game against the Lakers, and only scored four points in the first half of the game, and the scoring ability on the court seemed to be replaced by another person.
With a 68-58 score, both sides entered the second half. However, the Jazz have always had the characteristic that they will not play in the third quarter, so this campaign is very critical for the Nuggets in back-to-back games. If they can catch up with or even overtake the score in this quarter, because they are not in good shape in the first half, in turn, their physical fitness has been given a certain degree of self-protection, but they have a better chance of winning in the fourth quarter. In the first two minutes of the third quarter, the Jazz briefly widened the point difference to 13 points through a burst inside shot, but although Jeff Green's outside feel had not yet returned, the violent layup on the inside played beautifully, and Jokic's mid-range small throw was also firmly hit. With Gordon's smashing hit, the gap was narrowed to four points. Barton's 2+1 dunk under the empty basket brought the score to an 80-80 draw. 84-84, 89-88, the two teams always tightly matched, Mitchell's consecutive free throws, giving the Jazz 91-88, with a three-point lead into the decisive fourth quarter. The Nuggets scored seven points in a single quarter.
However, as soon as the fourth quarter came up, the court suddenly changed again, Pascal opened the scoring of Najib's batters on the free throw line, Conley also hit a three-point shot on the outside, less than 1 minute, the Jazz played a 6-0 small climax, the score also came to 97-88, directly stopped the Nuggets. But when the timeout came back, the Nuggets' offense and defense still did not improve, but instead sent the Jazz players to the free throw line in a row, playing more than 4 minutes in the quarter, the score came to 102-90, and the Jazz had led by 12 points. Consecutive internal injuries have allowed the Jazz to continue the momentum of rising points, 111-95, and the Nuggets have more than 5 minutes left in the game to call a timeout. But the Jazz have firmly dominated the field, and the game can also be said to have lost suspense in advance. In the end, the Jazz beat the Nuggets by 23 points from 125-102 to easily win the game.
Finally, let's look at the statistics of both sides: the Jazz side of the six doubles, Mitchell contributed a team-high 31 points, 5 rebounds and 4 assists, Pogdanovic also had 21 points, 4 rebounds and 5 assists, Gobert and Clarkson had 18 points, 19 rebounds and 16 points, 6 rebounds and 3 assists, and O'Neal and Pascal also scored 11 points and 10 points each. The Nuggets had five doubles, Jokic had 25 points, 15 rebounds and 14 assists, Gordon also had 20 points, 7 rebounds and 6 assists, Barton scored 16 points, and Hyland and Morris each contributed 13 points.