The Utah Jazz are perfect through two games of the preseason, knocking off the Perth Wildcats in their preseason debut, before handling the Toronto Raptors in their second outing. As opposed to their wire to wire blow out of the Wildcats, the Raptors provided a much more prolific test for the Jazz, who struggled in the game’s second quarter.
After jumping out to a 31-25 lead in the first quarter, turnovers and missed shots (with the exception of Joe Ingles) lead to a 33-18 drubbing in favor of the Raptors, the Jazz were down 58-49 aft the half. What’s concerning about this quarter was that there were stretches of the ones going against the ones, and the Jazz were hammered.
In the preseason, when the Jazz are playing particularly loose, the stretch shouldn’t set off any alarms at this point, and Toronto is a formidable foe, and maybe one of the few teams in the NBA that have a case to be better than the Jazz. The addition of Kawhi Leonard is an interesting gamble for a now wide open up East with LeBron Heading to the West. If he stays in with Toronto beyond this season, it will be a fantastic trade. If he leaves, the Raptors will have mortgaged a consistent 60 win roster for one season of a roster that isn’t good enough to beat the Golden State Warriors.
Grayson Allen had a nice mini stretch in the second half when he hit an open three pointer, and caught an alley-oop dunk in transition, but those were his only two makes of his nine attempts. He’ll have to shoot better to find the floor.
Ingles paced the Jazz on his 31st birthday, pouring in 24 points on 15 shots, including 5-11 three point shooting.
The Jazz will play the Adelaide 36ers on Friday.
