Wizards drop West-leading Jazz for third straight win

The Wizards got their third straight win by beating the Western Conference leading Utah Jazz. The victory pushed Washington’s record to 7-6 — above .500 for the first time since October 30.

Utah is a weird and entertaining team. This summer, the team traded away its top three players (Rudy Gobert, Donovan Mitchell and Bojan Bogdanovic) for a motherload of draft picks and whatever players were necessary to make the salaries comply with league rules. The Jazz figured to have a strong entry in the Victor Wembanyama sweepstakes.

But new head coach Will Hardy cobbled together a quirky lineup, the players bought in, and they entered Washington with a 10-3 record and in first place in the West. How weird is the lineup?

Utah’s starting SF is the 6-11, 240 pound Kelly Olynyk. Their PF is 7-0, 240 Lauri Markkanen. Naturally, their center is the 6-8, 214 pound Jarred Vanderbilt.

The overall lack of talent will probably catch up to them at some point, but the Jazz were winners of four straight and six of their last seven as they’ve kept finding ways to play together and make things work.

All of this is to say that the 9-point victory was a good win for the Wizards, who blew the game open with a 16-0 run in the third quarter and held on against a spirited Utah comeback.

The Wizards were led by Corey Kispert, who didn’t miss — 6-6 from the floor, 4-4 from three, and 2-2 from the free throw line. Kispert scored 18 points with a 10.6% usage rate — an offensive rating (points produced per possession x 100) of 251. League average is 112.

Back from missing a game with a sore groin, big man Kristaps Porzingis did the heavy lifting. He scored 31 points, grabbed 10 boards, and was effective closing down the lane on defense.

Deni Avdija had his best game of the season — doing a bit of everything during his 34 minutes. His stat line: 13 points on just 6 field goal attempts, 7 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 steals and a block. He showed some offensive aggression, and the recent work he’s been doing on his long-range shooting showed with a more fluid form on his made three. His defense was solid.

Monte Morris shot poorly (just 2-9 from the floor), but contributed 7 rebounds, 9 assists and zero turnovers.

Kyle Kuzma seemed to be getting more fan attention for his offensive night, but his primary contribution was on the defensive end where the Jazz had trouble scoring with him out there. He finished with nice glory stats: 23 points, 8 rebounds, 6 assists, but he shot just 8-19 from the floor and 1-7 from three, and he committed 4 turnovers. In a game where the Wizards had a 121 offensive rating, Kuzma’s was 97 with a usage rate of 36.3%.

Jordan Goodwin had another good game off the bench — 9 points with 3-3 shooting from deep, 2 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal and 2 blocks in 21 minutes.