The 4 seed Utah Jazz took on the 2 seed Golden State Warriors in Utah and blew the Dubs out, 111-85. The Jazz was playing without their rim protector and 3 times defensive player of the year, Rudy Gobert but got some great rim protection from Hassan Whiteside instead. The big man had 7 blocks on the night and was huge for the Jazz on the glass with 17 rebounds. The game was close after the first half but Utah took over in the second half.
The superstars for both teams, Donovan Mitchell and Steph Curry did not have high-scoring games but were very impactful. Mitchell was 2 assists shy of a triple-double and had 14 points, 10 rebounds, and 8 assists for the game. Curry had similar performance with 16 points,7 rebounds, and 2 assists. The Warriors struggled from the field with a 35.9% field goal percentage compared to the Jazz’s 46.1%. Both teams had 6 members with double-figure scoring but Bojan Bogdanovic for the Jazz was the only player who scored more than 20 points (23) in the game. The game was physical and eventually, defence coupled with the higher shooting efficiency allowed the Jazz to beat the Warriors at home.
Steph Curry has struggled a lot ever since he broke the all-time 3 point record at Madison square garden on 15 December 2021. The 3-time champion and 2 time regular season MVP was on pace to have another amazing season and probably win MVP once again. Curry has fallen off in the MVP race with his recent struggles, a lot of which has to do with the absence of Draymond Green from the lineup. Green takes a huge load off of Curry’s shoulder when he is on the floor, allowing the point guard to be the primary scorer while he looked after distributing the ball. The team also misses the former defensive player of the year being the anchor on defence and defending the opposing team’s best players.
Despite their missing pieces, Steph’s struggles, and figuring out how to successfully integrate Klay Thompson into the team, the warriors had won 9 in a row before this loss to the Jazz. They still stand in 2nd place in the west and have the second-best record in the league. This goes on to show how deep the warriors’ roster is and how they have managed to develop players that can pick up the slack when their star players are struggling or injured. The Golden state warriors are still one of the best teams in the league right now but once Draymond returns, Steph gets back into MVP form and Klay gets back to the Klay from 2 years ago, the entire league will have to take notice because the dynasty is back and they plan on making a whole lot of noise this season and in many more seasons to come.
