The Jazz Put Up 81 Points In A Wild First Half Against The Warriors

The Friday night slate of NBA action featured a pair of potential conference finals previews, with the Raptors edging out the Celtics earlier in the evening, and the Jazz taking on the defending champion Warriors on their home floor. And neither game has disappointed so far.

But in the late game, Utah came out with their guns blazing against Golden State to the tune of 81 first-half points. You read that correctly. The Jazz went into the break with a 12-point lead over the Warriors behind five players in double figures, including 12 points from their star sophomore guard Donovan Mitchell, who closed out the half with this beautiful crossover and three with the clock winding down.

Mitchell was 3-of-6 overall from behind the arc in the first half, while Joe Ingles led the way with 14 points on 4-of-5 shooting from downtown. The Jazz as a team were shooting better than 45 percent from three-point territory through the first two quarters, and 55 percent from the field overall.

But big man Rudy Gobert was making his presence felt as well as put in 13 points and five rebounds, and made seven of his nine free-throw attempts and had a couple of monster jams for good measure.

It’s not as if the Warriors were slouches, however. They were shooting over 60 percent from the field in the first half and 45 percent from three as well, but the Jazz were simply outgunning them. They’ll try to get back on track as the second half gets underway.