Two teams headed in opposite directions square off Saturday afternoon in Salt Lake City when the Utah Jazz host the New York Knicks.
The Jazz come in on a four-game losing streak, having most recently blown a huge lead at San Antonio on Thursday. They entered the weekend last in the Western Conference with just three wins on the season.
Conversely, the Knicks bring a four-game winning streak to Utah after kicking off a five-game road trip Wednesday night with a victory at Phoenix.
Coach Tom Thibodeau was pleased with how well the Knicks performed together in their 138-122 win over the short-handed Suns, who were missing injured stars Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal.
“The guys are starting to get used to playing off of each other,” Thibodeau said. “Each game you can see they’re seeing things. They’re reading the game extremely well. I think they’re creating good spacing. They’re cutting extremely well and what that’s doing is it’s opening up the floor and we’re playing into space. And everyone’s unselfish. We had 30 assists. I think that’s huge.”
In the win at Phoenix, Jalen Brunson scored 23 points in the first half and Karl-Anthony Towns poured in 23 in the second half.
Brunson finished with 36 points and 10 assists. He hit 12 of 21 field goals overall and drained 7 of 11 3-point attempts.
Towns totaled 34 points on 12-of-19 shooting from the floor, adding 10 rebounds to help the Knicks continue their winning ways after two victories over Brooklyn and one against Washington.
The Jazz came unraveled Thursday night after taking a 20-point first-half lead at San Antonio. Lauri Markkanen scored 27 and Keyonte George chipped in with 19 against the Spurs, who were playing without injured star center Victor Wembanyama.
“I thought the first half, the energy, the tempo, the ball movement, the competitive spirit of the team was as good as we’ve seen in a while,” Jazz coach Will Hardy said.
That wasn’t the case in the second half, however, as Utah gave up 75 points and was outscored by 12 points in both the third and fourth quarters.
Reserve Brice Sensabaugh, who’s seen inconsistent playing time, was a highlight for Utah in the first half, when he totaled 13 of his 18 points.
“He has not complained. He’s not had, like, a âwoe-is-me’ mentality. He’s just come to work every day and he’s taken some hard coaching,” Hardy said. “He understands what’s expected of him, but to his credit, he was ready, and he deserves all of the credit for that.”
Off to a tough start, the Jazz are hoping to find more consistency. The uneven play was evident against the Spurs, and it’s been an issue at home, too. Utah returns to the Delta Center, usually a difficult venue for opponents, with just a 1-5 home record.
“At the end of the day, you’ve got to play two halves,” Collin Sexton said after scoring 18 for Utah. “We’ve got to play 48 minutes. You can’t allow the first half to get you too high or get you too low, you’ve got to always stay consistent and just continue to build off of that.”
