Same teams from nine days ago. Different arena. Same result for the Mavericks. Dallas came into Salt Lake City on Friday night, after getting run off the floor by the Portland Trailblazers, Thursday, and did just that to the young Utah Jazz, by a final of 105-82. Behind Dirk Nowitski’s 27 points and 10 rebounds, just nine days after a 120-102 victory for the Mavs, over the Jazz, back in Dallas.
The Jazz didn’t help their cause, turning the ball over 23 times, leading to 32 points for the Mavs. Not to mention early foul trouble for Derrick Favors and a premature exit from rookie Rodney Hood, who left the contest after only registering 6 minutes, due to Plantar Fasciitis in his right foot. The Jazz will evaluate Hood on Saturday to find out the severity of the injury.
The biggest disparity might not even be the turnovers in this game, even thought the Jazz had 23 turnovers to Dallas’ 9 turnover, but the amount of extra shots the Mavs got because of those turnovers and 13 offensive rebounds. Something Quin Snyder was none too pleased with. “It started out we had a lot of open shots. They did a great job guarding us. Those were the things that were available, said Snyder. We got a couple things inside. We couldn’t convert. I think when you struggle to score that much it just puts more and more pressure on your defense. They’re obviously an excellent offensive team. They execute very well and I thought we just wore down defensively when we didn’t see the ball go in the basket.” The Jazz definitely struggled getting the ball in the hoop, shooting only 42.6% on the game and again 23 turnovers, to only 19 assists. On Wednesday night versus the Cavaliers, it was the exact opposite, with the Jazz getting 26 assists to an unheard of 6, for the Cavs.
No time to dwell on the loss. Time to move on and the need to do it quickly, would be to the utmost importance. Utah starts up their first road trip of the season, a five game stretch, beginning with the Detroit Pistons and closing out against the much improved and hungry Toronto Raptors. Not to mention, the Pacers, Hawks and Knicks. Of those five teams, three were in the Eastern Conference playoffs last season.
