Jazz fall to Pistons in Bojan’s return to Vivint

Nov 24, 2022 - 4:47 AM

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Bojan Bogdanovic made his return to Vivint Arena on Wednesday and it went far better for his Detroit Pistons than for the Utah Jazz as the former beat the latter by a final score of 125-116.

It’d be pressing it to call Bogdanovic’s performance a true “revenge game” but he did put up a pretty good 23 points, five rebounds and three assists so it’s close enough to label it that. Either way, his solid night — where he led his team in scoring — helped give Detroit its first winning streak of the season.

The Jazz only led at two points in the game, both in the first quarter. Talen Horton-Tucker made a three to put Utah up 20-19 and Malik Beasley hit a triple to give Utah a 23-21 advantage. Once the Pistons took back the lead though, the Jazz never got it back.

At halftime the Pistons led 66-54. Two of Utah’s starters, Jarred Vanderbilt and Lauri Markkanen, were scoreless at that point. The only thing that had the Jazz even close to being in the contest at that point was the 17 points from Malik Beasley, 13 from Jordan Clarkson and 11 from Collin Sexton.

Markkanen woke up offensively to a degree in the second half, where he had 13 points. Beasley finished with a big night overall off the bench with a game-best 29 points. Sexton ended up with 17 points and 12 assists for his first double-double in a Jazz uniform and Clarkson had 24 points.

With those solid performances from Jazzmen, Utah managed to make something of a comeback. The Jazz got within four points, 94-90, during the third quarter and an even closer three points at a couple points in the fourth quarter, 98-95 with 10:04 left in the fourth and later 113-110 with 3:49 to play. Each time the Jazz made a push though, the Pistons rallied and pulled ahead again.

Perhaps fittingly for the night in question, Clarkson passed Bogdanovic for fifth place on the Jazz all-time 3-pointers list. Bogdanovic made 550 in his three years in Utah, Clarkson made his 551st three in a Jazz uniform during the third quarter. In fourth place is Gordon Hayward who is 138 threes ahead of Clarkson at 689.

The Utah Jazz are on yet another losing streak and have lost five of its last seven games after the 10-3 start. The back-to-back losses have dropped the Jazz from first in the Western Conference all the way to fifth.