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Without Lauri Markkanen, Jaren Jackson Jr., and Jusuf Nurkic, I sat down to watch this game out of necessity rather than anticipation. Victor Wembanyama has mastered the art of beating up on teams that cannot match up physically, and I don’t think a center rotation of Jaxson Hayes and Mo Bamba was striking much fear into his heart. Let’s get this one over it, and be one day closer to the return of our all-stars.
I am happy to report that my pessimism was, more or less, unfounded. Until the very end of overtime, the score fluctuated between a solid Jazz lead and a tie. What really made this an enjoying watch, however, was not the competitiveness itself but rather the means that led us to that outcome. The Jazz were carried by their three young pillars, and each was very consistently showing flashes throughout the game. Ace Bailey demonstrated strong mid-range scoring ability, with many sets run for him similar to what you’d expect to see run for a healthy Lauri Markkanen. Keyonte George was effective as the clear leader and offensive #1, scoring from all three levels. And Darryn Peterson, in my opinion, flashed the most ball-handling, shot-making juice that we have seen out of him thus far. Below you can find the clear highlight of the game:
However, this underdog victory was not meant to be, for two primary reasons. The first, and most obvious, was the immense talent differential between the two squads. The Spurs essentially rolled out the team that nearly won them an NBA championship the year prior, and the Jazz put out a team that is arguably worse on paper than its 22 win 2025-2026 squad. Victor Wembanyama was the clear best player on the game, and he played like it. He seemed to sleepwalk his way to 36 points and 14 rebounds; this was not close to the intensity that he was displaying during the playoffs last season. They were missing their threes and Dylan Harper was struggling with efficiency, but San Antonio won the firepower game tonight, and it became clear once we hit overtime; the Jazz were struggling to find good shots (Brice made two threes, but they were tough ones), and the Spurs seemed to…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/jazz-youngsters-t-hold-versus-060146891.html
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Publish date : 2026-10-29 06:01:00
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