|
Mitchell with miss at least two games with a back strain he
suffered in the first quarter of Utah's win at home over Dallas
on Saturday. He will stay in Salt Lake City to get treatment for
his injury.
The Jazz head to San Antonio after their 120-116 victory over
Dallas on Christmas Day. Mitchell led Utah with 33 points, his
ninth 30-point game of the season. Bojan Bogdanovic scored 25
points, Mike Conley hit for 22, and Jordan Clarkson and Rudy
Gobert added 12 and 10 points, respectively, in the victory.
Gobert also grabbed 11 rebounds for the Jazz, who have won three
straight games and 11 of their past 13 outings over the past
month. Utah dominated the COVID-compromised Mavericks, who just
didn't have the firepower to keep up late in the game. The Jazz
have not lost a player to coronavirus this season.
"We didn't play our best and got behind by 16 points, but this
time we didn't let it slip away," Gobert said. "We're getting
better and maybe learning some lessons."
The Jazz's win over Dallas was slowed by a combined 72 free
throw attempts, a high for the league this season.
"The frantic part of it was just us fouling, and I thought that
really hurt us, particularly in the first quarter, because it
slows the game down," Jazz coach Quin Snyder said after the win.
"It allows (the opponent) to change defenses and then we're not
able to play it at a pace that we want."
The Spurs are playing the second game of a home back-to-back
that began with an easy 144-109 win over the hapless Detroit
Pistons on Sunday. San Antonio produced a near-perfect first
half and dominating victory despite playing without Dejounte
Murray, who missed the game because of health and safety
protocols.
Keldon Johnson matched his season high of 27 points on 10-of-12
shooting from the floor in the win while Jock Landale added a
career-best 18 points, Jakob Poeltl hit for 14, Doug McDermott
scored 13 points and Keita Bates-Diop tallied 10.
Tre Jones recorded 11 assists and Derrick White had 10 assists
(both career-highs) for the Spurs, who recorded a season-high in
points and assists (39). Jones said the team had to pull
together with the absence of Murray, who will be out for an
undetermined amount of time.
"(Murray) is our leader, he's our point guard and he makes us
go," Jones explained. "So there's always gonna be a big shakeup
when you lose someone who brings so much to the team and does so
much for us.
"But we know that it's been a crazy year. It's a crazy, crazy
season. And we got to be prepared for anything. We all got to
rally together, and we've all got to take it upon ourselves to
do a little more to try to help our team get some more wins."
San Antonio has won a season-best three straight games and four
of its past five, a successful streak that tipped off with a
128-126 win in Salt Lake City over the Jazz on Dec. 17.
The Spurs' 38-point first quarter and 40-point second quarter
were season highs in their respective periods as were the 78
first-half points and the 24-point lead at halftime. San Antonio
has had only six games in franchise history with more points in
the first half.
--Field Level Media
[© 2021 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2021 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.
 |
|
