Coincidentally, the Utah Jazz and Golden State Warriors meet in Salt Lake City on Monday night after facing similar opponents.
In any case, the Warriors performed significantly better than the Jazz in their most recent matchup with the Phoenix Suns.
The primary distinction? Stephen Curry plays for Golden State.
On Saturday night, the future Hall of Famer added another spectacular moment to his resume when he hit the game-winning 3-pointer with seconds remaining to help host Golden State defeat Phoenix 113–11.
Devin Booker had just given the Suns a 112-110 lead by hitting a turnaround jumper with 35.6 seconds remaining.
“We were due,” stated Steve Kerr, the coach of the Warriors, who are 17–18 in an NBA-high 35 crucial game this year. “One of these close games was about to go our way. However, the boys merited it. It was not a random event.
With 3.3 seconds remaining, Brandin Podziemski found Curry on the inbounds pass. With five seconds left, Curry grabbed the ball from 33 feet away, whirled around, and hammered home his tenth career game-winning basket.
Podziemski stated, “I just tried to get it to him.” “No matter how long it took.”
Curry, who finished with 30 points and nine 3-pointers, described the difficult shot as “just muscle memory.”
“You have to learn to live with it,” Curry continued. “Thankfully, it worked out.”
In their most recent game, a 129-115 loss to the host Suns on Thursday, the Jazz were not lucky enough to be within a final shot.
Phoenix blew the game open in the third quarter with a 13-0 run. The Suns led the rest of the way with ease.
The Jazz were behind by 19 points in the third quarter, even though they had closed the gap to three earlier in the game.
“(We) cut it to three and then after that, we just had some possessions where we took a few bad shots, a couple of turnovers and it allowed them to play against an unset defense,” Will Hardy, the Jazz coach, said. “That was another night where we never had a break because they were always missing one.” They did a fantastic job of utilizing those opportunities.”
Prior to Thursday’s trade deadline, the Jazz had traded Ochai Agbaji, Kelly Olynyk, and Simone Fontecchio. This was their first game together.
Against the Suns, Taylor Hendricks and Talen Horton-Tucker received increased use off the bench; Hendricks finished with three points and eight rebounds in 18 minutes, while Horton-Tucker scored seven points in 14 minutes.
“I’m positive that every man in that locker room believes in what we’re doing. That’s how they’ve been all year,” Hardy remarked. However, there is a certain amount of awkwardness that happens naturally as roles and lineups shift. We need to work at striking the correct balance in light of the various events taking place.”
The teams will play one other for the first time this season on Monday. They will face off twice in San Francisco in April, after meeting again in Salt Lake City on Thursday.
