After a comeback win over Minnesota, the Utah Jazz look to take the season series with San Antonio when they host the Spurs on Thursday night.
The Jazz — playing again without leading scorer Lauri Markkanen (illness) — rallied from 15 points down to beat the visiting Timberwolves 127-122 on Tuesday and end a four-game losing streak.
Third-year guard Keyonte George had a career-high 43 points and sank six threes, while center Jusuf Nurkic, despite suffering a bloody cut over his eyebrow, had 18 rebounds.
“Man, I’m proud of our team,” said Jazz coach Will Hardy, who also earned his 100th career NBA win. “The resilience to play that hard and compete like that for all 48 minutes after being on the road 17 of the last 20 days, and coming back on a back-to-back against a good team that’s waiting on us here, it speaks to the character of the guys.”
The Jazz have been the worst team on defense in the NBA, allowing an average of 127.4 points over 44 games. Markkanen, averaging a career-high 27.9 points in his ninth season, hasn’t played since Jan. 12 with what the Jazz have called an illness.
“Playing without Lauri obviously changes the dynamic of a lot of guys’ roles because of the load he carries every night,” Hardy said. “I think it’s a very good signal that we’re capable of playing good basketball, and winning basketball when he doesn’t play.”
San Antonio has the second-best record in the Western Conference but is only 5-5 in its last 10 games. The Spurs lost to the host Houston Rockets 111-106 on Tuesday night. Superstar Victor Wembanyama had his worst shooting night of the season, going 5 for 21 (23.8%) from the field, and was limited to 14 points, well off his average of 24.4.
Spurs coach Mitch Johnson gave credit to Houston for taking the Spurs out of their game. San Antonio shot 39% (41 of 105) from the floor.
“There were just toughness plays all across the board and they showed themselves,” Johnson said. “I don’t think it was one thing that continued to hurt us other than just some toughness.
“Mental, physical, all across the board in a lot of different ways that got to us and snowballed,” the coach continued, “and they rode the momentum and they finished the job, and then we gave a lot away in participating in that. But give Houston a lot of credit.”
The Jazz and Spurs are meeting for the second time in four days. San Antonio won at home 123-110 on Monday with Wembanyama putting in 33, while the host Jazz earned a 127-114 win on Dec. 27.
