Kevin Durant's hot hand pushed the Golden State Warriors to a tough road win over the Utah Jazz. Durant shot 15 of 26 including 4 of 8 from the three-point line. He also had 13 rebounds. Stephen Curry had 23 points on 6 of 20 shooting from the field. Gordon Hayward and Rudy Gobert played well for the Jazz, Hayward had 29 points and Gobert finished with 21 points and 15 rebounds.
Recap
The first half was really competitive. Rudy Gobert was the difference-maker for the Jazz in the first half. He posted a 12 point, 9 rebound scoreline through two quarters.
Gobert was dominating on the glass, limiting the Warriors' possessions, and getting some good offense for the group. For the Warriors, Kevin Durant was money. Durant was 8 of 15 for 22 points in the first half. For a portion of the quarter, the Warriors had him go into an iso onto Hayward, where he really just used his length to get any shot he wanted. The second half was where the Warriors were really tested. The Jazz took their first lead of the entire series in Game 3 and they really pushed the Warriors. Draymond was frustrated with the officiating all game, getting himself a technical.
The Jazz played like they were even with the Warriors, which is how you have to play to get close to winning.
Unfortunately for the Jazz and the Utah fans, the outcome was the same. The Warriors took a 3-0 series lead with this win.
Positives for Utah
The Jazz weren't shaken. After back-to-back losses against the top team in the league, the Jazz still had some fight in them. They needed to dominate the glass and they did in the first half, but the second half got away from them.
They played good defense on Steph Curry, specifically Shelvin Mack in that role. They held the Warriors to just 7 fast-break points, which was an issue in games 1 and 2.
What it comes down to for Utah is that they need to defend well and shoot well. They defended well Saturday night. They allowed the Warriors to shoot just 44 percent from the field and 30 percent from the three-point line, but they couldn't shoot.
They shot 39 percent from the field, 31 percent from three, and 70 percent from the free throw line.
The Warriors' defense was superb down the stretch in this game. When shots weren't falling for everyone other than Kevin Durant, the Warriors got it done defensively. With seven minutes to go in the game, and with the score tied at 78, the Warriors clamped down and outscored the Jazz 24 to 13.
