Utah Jazz win in a thriller against the Boston Celtics

Mar 19, 2023 - 6:49 AM

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This Utah Jazz team has so much fight in them, and that showed again tonight as they took their 7th one-point win against the Boston Celtics tonight in Salt Lake City.

The Jazz trailed by as many as 19 points in this game - for much of the first half it felt like the Celtics simply had too much firepower for the Jazz to deal with and they poured in 13 threes before halftime. The Jazz continued to fight, never relenting as they battled back to make it a manageable 7-point deficit heading into halftime.

In the second half, the Celtics threw the couple of punches they could muster on the second night of a back-to-back on the road, but they couldn’t land the knockout blow. Lauri Markkanen contributed his usual great numbers, 28 points, and 10 rebounds, but down the stretch, it was a true team effort to secure the win for the Jazz. Ochai Agbaji hit a critical three-pointer with just under 2 minutes left. Talen Horton-Tucker was fearless going to the basket, and of course, Walker Kessler made the game-saving block on the Celtics' final possession to seal the game.

The Jazz game plan defensively was clearly to make life as difficult as possible for Jayson Tatum. Overall you could say this was a success, as Tatum only attempted 12 shots in this game, not scoring a single point in the second half. The Jazz also went to a zone look which seemed to throw Boston for a loop. This was a brilliantly coached game by Will Hardy, he continually gets the best out of the players and puts them in positions to succeed.

The #TankNote crowd will surely be disappointed with this loss - but I’m personally beginning to come around to the idea that we just need to enjoy this team that fights, no matter what, because it’s been a while since we’ve had a team like that and it’s the culture we want to maintain moving into the future.