The Good & The Bad from the Utah Jazz vs the Milwaukee Bucks

The Jazz are off to their best start in franchise history.

After a victory over the Bucks, the Utah Jazz are 21-5 which is the best start in franchise history. Here is the good and the bad from Utah's 129-115 victory over the Bucks on Friday night.

The good

• Joe Ingles hit his first three to give the Jazz a 3-0 lead. He would go on to hit his first four threes - he had the first 9 Jazz points. That was part of a career first half for Ingles - more on that in a moment.
• A pass from Ingles to Gobert set up a dunk over over Giannis:

*HYPE INTENSIFIES*#NBAAllStar | @rudygobert27 pic.twitter.com/y99vPHOIVk

— Utah Jazz (@utahjazz) February 13, 2021

• An old fashioned three-point play by Jordan Clarkson gave the Jazz a 19-15 lead in the first quarter.
• The Jazz played excellent defense on Giannis in the first. The Jazz held the former MVP to 1/3 shooting and 2 points in the first half.
• Georges Niang started 2/2 with 5 points. He also had a nifty steal on the following possession after the Bucks got an offensive rebound.
• Jordan Clarkson doing Jordan Clarkson things. He had two quick threes in the first quarter that were part of a 9-0 Jazz run.
• The Jazz took a 35-31 lead into the second quarter shoot 52% from the field.
• An acrobatic layup from Jordan Clarkson gave the Jazz a 51-35 lead.

• A frantic possession turned into a highlight when Donovan Mitchell threw a laser all the way across the floor to Joe Ingles for a three. Check out the possession below - Ingles' three gave the Jazz a 61-47 lead. 

What a sequence! #TakeNote pic.twitter.com/6mhF1TI27R

— Hoop Notebook (@HoopNotebook) February 13, 2021

• The Jazz finished the first half on a little run to take a 69-52 lead into the break.
• Gobert was a force on the offensive glass to start the second half. He had an and-one off a  put back before the first media timeout.
• Favors had an efficient third quarter. He had 10 points on 5/5 shooting against the Bucks.
• The Jazz took a 96-82 lead into the fourth quarter. The Bucks got into a little bit of a rhythm, but the Jazz had an answer for every Milwaukee run.
• Rudy Gobert was great on both ends of the court. Unsurprisingly, he was the anchor of a Jazz defense that kept the Bucks out of rhythm throughout the night. What really stood out was his impact on offense - the Bucks did not have an answer for Gobert around the rim. He finished with x points and x rebounds.
• Royce O'Neal was responsible for guarding Giannis Antetokoumpo for a large portion of the night and he was really effective.
• Like we've seen from the Jazz over the last month, they were great in winning time. They closed out the Bucks and left no doubt.
• You can see Donovan Mitchell's game evolving each month. He didn't have his best shooting night against the Bucks, but he impacted the game in another way: he shot 14 free throws and made 13 of them.
• The Jazz had four players score 25+ on Friday night. Clarkson, Ingles, Gobert, and Mitchell all had 25 points or more.

The bad

• The Jazz  struggled to get stops in the early going. The Bucks shot 54% from the field in the first quarter. The Bucks deserve some credit for that - they are a very good team. However, there were a handful of defensive breakdowns that allowed open threes.
• Giannis started to heat up a little bit in the third quarter. He only had two points at the half, but he ended with 29 points on Friday night.
• A couple turnovers before the end of the third quarter allowed the Bucks to remain within striking distance. That run cut the lead to 13.