jazz Page 6 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Goodbye, Boris Diaw
The fact that Boris Diaw was still out there somewhere in this large world playing basketball in public, even if I wasn’t around to look at it, lit a happy little flame in my brain. If I was in a good mood at any given time, it could be attributed in some barely measurable way to that fact. Yesterda...

Under No Circumstances Will You Ever Guess Which Utah Jazz Rookie Provoked A Tussle With Trae Young
The dreaded Grayson Allen started Thursday night’s Hawks-Jazz Summer League tilt in Salt Lake City. You will be very glad to know that he’s shooting poorly and struggling to score (two points on 1-of-10 shooting through three quarters, but a tidy eight assists to zero turnovers). You will not be sur...

Rudy Gobert Mercilessly Owns Tiny Basketball Child
A lesson for everyone, taught to this basketball child by Rudy Gobert: Do not, under any circumstances, bring that weak shit, or it will be obliterated....

Donovan Mitchell Was Invincible For A Minute
Donovan Mitchell spent his first-ever playoff series incinerating both his defenders and every reasonable expectation for even the most precocious rookie. In pouring in 28.5 ppg on 46 percent shooting from the floor and 36 percent from three, Mitchell managed serious volume without loss of efficienc...

Dante Exum Is Now Doing Things
With Ricky Rubio out, Utah’s long, long specimen Dante Exum was stuck with one of the most frustrating defensive assignments in basketball: James Harden and the 1,001 dribbles. The stringy Australian has spent just over half of his NBA career injured, but in those healthy stretches has shown serious...

Grim And Gritty Ricky Rubio Will Be Grimly And Grittily Cheering From The Bench In Game 1 Of Jazz-Rockets
Ricky Rubio, who looks like the very happiest bearded child in that damn photo up there, will reportedly not be available for Game 1 of Jazz-Rockets, to be played Sunday afternoon in Houston. The hamstring injury that sidelined him for most of the final game of Utah’s series-clinching win over OKC w...

The Thunder Were The Ugliest Version Of Themselves In Game 6
The Utah Jazz dispatched the Oklahoma City Thunder Friday night, closing out the first round series with a narrow and vaguely controversial victory on Utah’s home floor behind more stout defense and just enough shot-making from their various role-players. Donovan Mitchell was fantastic, dropping in ...

Russell Westbrook Played Basketball And Stayed Alive
Once the Thunder were down 3-1, the Russell Westbrook obituaries had already begun to roll in; down 25, the eulogizers had probably started dipping their quills back in purple. What we’d already heard many times over was going to be repeated once again, at blaring, self-satisfied volume: You can’t w...

Russell Westbrook Brought The Thunder Back
The Thunder weren’t supposed to get this one. Down 3-1 in their first-round series against the Jazz, and down by as many as 25 points as late as the middle of the third quarter tonight, this elimination game felt pretty damn close to a foregone conclusion. Until it felt like something else—a ridicul...

The Thunder Hit Rock Bottom, Where They Found A Gloating Mitt Romney
If you want a tangible explanation for why the Oklahoma City Thunder are down 3-1 in their playoff series against the Jazz and seem destined for a first-round exit, take your pick: Rudy Gobert has effectively canceled out Russell Westbrook’s ability to drive to the hoop; Russell Westbrook has no jum...

Grim And Gritty Ricky Rubio Has The Thunder On The Ropes
It can be a little disorienting to remind yourself that grim and gritty Ricky Rubio, the veteran point guard of the Utah Jazz, has played exactly the same number of playoff games over the course of his NBA career as Donovan Mitchell has. Rubio, whose transformation from doe-eyed, baby-faced sidekick...

The Thunder Are Being Shady About Steven Adams's Possibly Injured Arm
To refresh your memory, Steven Adams rammed in an alley-oop in Game 1 of the Thunder’s playoff series against the Jazz that made a satisfying thunk, but also rendered his right arm unusable. It just sort of hung there for awhile....

Even A Hobbled Donovan Mitchell Won't Go Down Easily
After bruising his foot in Game 1, Jazz guard Donovan Mitchell insisted that he’d suit up for Game 2, despite having to play through a personally unprecedented amount of pain to do so. He didn’t seem very limited in his second-ever playoff game when he got a steal and scored on the first possession ...

Donovan Mitchell Isn't Wasting Any Time
The Thunder won the first game in their series against the Jazz on Sunday, thanks in large part to the dominance of Paul George. But if you’re looking for someone in Utah with the ability to rise to George and Russell Westbrook’s level and keep this series competitive, look no further than rookie gu...

Here's Everything At Stake On The Last Night Of The NBA Regular Season
Tonight, anyone watching the NBA will get to see the closest possible regular-season equivalent of a play-in game when the Denver Nuggets travel to Minnesota to play the T-Wolves for the last playoff spot. Both clubs are 46-35, and Minnesota leads the season series 2-1, though a 100-96 win last week...

Donovan Mitchell Isn't Going To Let This Ben Simmons Thing Go
Red alert: The sniping between Philly’s Ben Simmons and Utah’s Donovan Mitchell over who should be the NBA Rookie of the Year has reached “Custom Hoodie” status....

Donovan Mitchell Dropped Draymond Green On His Ass
The Jazz and Warriors are playing out a pretty goofy end-of-season game in which Golden State is very much not going at 100 percent and Utah is taking advantage. No moment has been sillier, though, than Jazz rookie Donovan Mitchell making reigning defensive player of the year Draymond Green look utt...

The Crappy, Grumpy Suns Took Two Cheap Shots At Ricky Rubio
One thing about being on an NBA team that’s rounding into the home stretch of a miserable tanking campaign is that it can make you cranky as hell. As evidence, please see the shenanigans the Suns got into with the Jazz last night....

Let Us Now Have Our Brains Melted By Anthony Davis
The New Orleans Pelicans came apart over the last, oh, 13 minutes or so of last night’s game and wound up losing pretty one-sidedly to the Utah Jazz, at home. Please do not let that distract you too much from the hilarious wonder of Anthony Davis’s 25-point, 11-rebound, 10-block triple double....