The Utah Jazz broke a four game home losing streak that opened the season with a 117-102 victory over the Dallas Mavericks. The jazz jumped out to an 30-18 lead after the first quarter, and built that to a 23 point lead at the half, and held on for a chippy victory.
The Mavericks cut the deficit to nine, and had several opportunities to cut into that lead early in the fourth quarter, but a physical confrontation between Ricky Rubio and Dennis Smith Jr. turned the tides in the Jazz favor, and they never looked back.
Donovan Mitchell had his first explosive finish of the season to end the first half, finishing over Maxi Kleber and Luka Doncic, then reopened the second half with a follow dunk to spark a the third of three 30 point quarters the Jazz had to begin the game. The dunks were a welcome sign from Mitchell who has been battling hamstring and ankle injuries over the past week.
📹| Don with vicious dunks and a few delectable dimes.
23p | 7a | 5r | 2s pic.twitter.com/vqZ8Lmme43
— Utah Jazz (@utahjazz) November 8, 2018
Mitchell finished with one of his best complete games of the season with 23 points, seven assists, five rebounds and two steals.
Friday night, Gordon Hayward makes his return to Salt Lake City for the first time since signing with the Boston Celtics.
