Field Level Media
Apr 4, 2019
Donovan Mitchell scored 29 points and Joe Ingles added 27 to lead the visiting Utah Jazz to a 118-97 victory over the Phoenix Suns on Wednesday night.
Rudy Gobert scored 17 points, collected 13 rebounds and blocked five shots for the Jazz. Utah won for the 11th time in 12 games, a run that started with a victory over the Suns on March 13.
Gobert earned his 63rd point-rebound double-double of the season, setting a Jazz franchise record. Karl Malone held the previous record of 62 point-rebound double-doubles set during the 1987-88 season.
Ingles also hit a milestone. He appeared in his 300th consecutive game for the Jazz, the longest active streak in the NBA.
Richaun Holmes tallied 16 points and nine rebounds to lead the Suns, and Elie Okobo scored 15 points.
Both teams were short-handed because of injuries. Ricky Rubio, Derrick Favors, Jae Crowder and Kyle Korver did not play for the Jazz. Phoenix's Devin Booker played only eight minutes in the first quarter before sustaining a left ankle sprain. He finished with eight points on 3-of-4 shooting.
Phoenix jumped on Utah early. The Suns opened the first quarter with 10 unanswered points and took a 17-4 lead on a layup from Dragan Bender.
After Booker went down, the complexion of the game completely changed for Phoenix. The Jazz dominated in the second quarter to surge ahead of the Suns. Utah ripped off an 11-0 run punctuated by back-to-back 3-pointers from Ingles to take a 48-39 lead.
Phoenix rallied and twice cut the deficit to a single point early in the third quarter, the second time on a step-back jumper from Josh Jackson that trimmed Utah's lead to 58-57. The Jazz pulled away again when Gobert answered Jackson's basket with an alley-oop dunk to spark a 9-0 run. Mitchell capped it off with a 3-pointer that gave Utah a 67-57 lead.
The Suns cut it to a basket again at 70-68 and then 72-70 on back-to-back baskets from Holmes. That was as close as Phoenix got. The Jazz used a 10-2 run -- capped by 3-pointers from Georges Niang and Raul Neto -- to go up 82-72 late in the third quarter.
--Field Level Media