Field Level Media
Dec 8, 2019
Donovan Mitchell scored 22 points and the Utah Jazz notched a season-best 32 assists en route to a 126-112 victory over the Memphis Grizzlies on Saturday night in Salt Lake City.
Bojan Bogdanovic, Rudy Gobert and Jeff Green scored 19 points apiece as Utah won for just the second time in the past seven games.
Royce O'Neale scored 14 points, Joe Ingles had 12 points, 10 assists and four steals, and Emmanuel Mudiay added 11 points and seven assists for the Jazz. Gobert was 8-of-9 shooting and contributed 11 rebounds and five assists for Utah, which shot 56.2 percent from the field, including 19 of 34 from 3-point range.
Jaren Jackson Jr. scored 26 points for Memphis, which lost for the ninth time in the last 10 contests.
Grayson Allen and Jae Crowder tallied 13 points apiece for the Grizzlies. Dillon Brooks and Jonas Valanciunas each scored 10 for Memphis, which shot 53.1 percent from the field and went 10 of 35 from behind the arc.
Grizzlies rookie point guard Ja Morant missed his fourth straight game with a back injury.
Utah played without point guard Mike Conley (hamstring) for the second consecutive contest.
Green was 7 of 9 from the field, including 5 of 6 from 3-point range. O'Neale made all four of his 3-point attempts.
Memphis trailed by 15 points at halftime but cut its deficit to 82-75 on Allen's layup with 5:04 remaining in the third quarter.
Ingles and Bogdanovic responded with back-to-back 3-pointers and O'Neale added a basket to push Utah's lead back to 15.
The Jazz led 97-84 entering the fourth quarter and scored 12 of the first 16 points of the stanza to take a 109-88 lead on Mudiay's 3-pointer with 7:18 left.
Mitchell's basket with 5:17 remaining gave Utah a 119-94 advantage and the Jazz cruised to the finish.
Mitchell scored 14 first-half points and the Jazz shot 60.5 percent from the field while taking a 69-54 halftime lead.
Memphis led 36-32 after one quarter but Utah exploded with a 25-4 burst over the first 6:29 of the second stanza. Bogdanovic completed the spurt with a layup to give the Jazz a 57-40 advantage.
Utah's biggest first-half lead came when Mitchell buried a 3-pointer to make it 60-42 with 4:59 remaining.
--Field Level Media