Field Level Media
Jan 12, 2020
Bojan Bogdanovic scored 31 points and Rudy Gobert added 21 points and 14 rebounds to help the Utah Jazz rally for a 127-116 victory over the host Washington Wizards on Sunday.
Jordan Clarkson added 23 points off the bench and Joe Ingles 20 for Utah. Six players scored in double figures to help the Jazz win their ninth straight game and improve to 14-1 in their past 15 games.
Gobert clamped down defensively after halftime to throw the Wizards out of rhythm offensively. He also scored 19 points over the final two quarters and helped the Jazz pull away late in the fourth quarter.
Gobert made three dunks over a two-minute stretch after Washington cut the deficit to 111-108 on a driving layup from Bradley Beal with 3:32 left.
Beal scored 25 points to lead the Wizards. Davis Bertans scored 18 points, Jordan McRae 16 and Ian Mahinmi 15. Washington lost for the second time in the past five games.
Beal and Thomas Bryant both returned to the lineup after missing several games because of injuries.
Utah's Donovan Mitchell missed his first game of the season while recuperating from an illness. In Mitchell's absence, the Jazz struggled to generate consistent offense in the first half. Utah shot 52 percent before halftime but hit just 4 of 18 shots from 3-point range.
Washington had no such trouble. The Wizards didn't miss a mid-range shot in the first quarter and shot 62 percent before halftime.
McRae, Ish Smith and Bryant each scored two baskets to fuel a 12-2 run that gave Washington a 36-23 lead early in the second quarter. The Wizards maintained a double-digit cushion through much of the quarter.
Bogdanovic scored several crucial baskets to keep Utah within striking distance. He scored 22 points on 9-of-14 shooting in the first half.
Utah scored 15 unanswered points, culminating in a second-chance dunk from Gobert, to tie the score at 77. The spurt formed part of a larger 21-3 run that culminated in back-to-back baskets from Clarkson that put the Jazz up 83-80 late in the third quarter.
--Field Level Media