Wizards vs. Jazz final score: Washington wins 88-84 despite sloppy play

When the Wizards shoot 52.4% for the game while controlling the Jazz to 41.5%, that should mean a blowout win, and in all likelihood, 50% off Papa John's Pizza for Thursday. But instead, they committed 21 turnovers, which evened up the score considerably. Still, the Wizards won 88-84, and that's all that matters.

And there's some better news. The Wizards now have their first five game winning streak since December 8 to December 19 when they won six straight games. I'll get to that later.

Yes, this win was hard fought, but the turnovers were just frustrating since this game should have been a blowout if they took even somewhat better care of the ball. Even though the Wizards shot 58% from the field in the first half while controlling the Jazz to just 38.1% shooting in the same timeframe, Washington was only ahead, 42-40. During that time, they committed 12 turnovers while the Jazz committed just three. Yikes!

Fortunately, the Wizards were able to take care of the ball much better overall in the third quarter, while maintaining their shooting efficiency, as John Wall scored 11 of his 24 points, and Paul Pierce added nine more, all on three pointers.

The Jazz certainly made things interesting by keeping the deficit manageable through the end of the game, but Wall continued to make some really tough shots, including one midrange jumper with Rudy Gobert with a hand in his face.

Speaking about making things interesting, we'll certainly be talking a bit about an alley oop dunk that Gordon Hayward made with 11.5 seconds left in the game after the Jazz spent a lot of time in bounds -- meaning more than five seconds -- before the ball was passed inbounds. And after Wall turned the ball over on the very next possession, that almost spelled doom. But fortunately, Hayward missed his next shot on the next possession, and the game was finally over.