SUMMARY:  Utah Jazz get back on winning track in a rhythm less game that gave the Jazz a little freight on their way to a 97-90 win over Dallas

• The Utah Jazz have to win games defensively and that is what they did tonight.  During the win streak the offense was unusually hot and since coming back from break they have not found that grove.  Tonight they had to win the game defensively against a not very good offensive team and that is exactly what they did.

• The value of Rudy Gobert and his defense was obvious tonight. Jazz were +15 in the 35 minutes he was on the floor and -8 in the 13 minutes he was on the bench.   The Mavericks bench gave the Jazz fits tonight.   The Jazz had a great defensive night but had a little bit of a tough time both in the 2^nd and the 4^th with the energetic bench unit of the Mavericks

• Joe Ingles made two plays that changed the game. The Jazz were being out played and outhustled in the 2^nd  They had lost a 15 point lead and the Mavericks were in complete control and Ingles came out of nowhere to block a left corner three from Doug McDermott.  It was the first hustle play of the night by the Jazz and spurred the Jazz on a 12-3 run to close the half and take the lead.

• Then with 3:50 left the Jazz lead by just 2 and it didn’t feel great. Ingles grabbed the rebound on a miss from Harrison Barnes and threw a ¾ quarter pass to a streaking Jae Crowder for a layup that put the Jazz up by 4 with 3:43 left.  Ingles then assisted Gobert for a dunk on a gorgeous pick and roll on the next Jazz basket to put them up 6 with 2:32 left.

• Joe Ingles is a really good basketball player. All around really good basketball player.  The Jazz are better than people realize for a few reasons and one of them is that Joe Ingles has a much bigger impact on the game than anyone understands.  Tonight late in the game he was the point guard for a lot of plays and had the defensive assignment on JJ Barea.   Speaking of Barea, to some extent JJ Barea and Joe Ingles are the same player.  I mean this in the essence of who they are, their journey, how they beat you.   They were the two best players on the floor tonight and afterwards no one is sure how they beat people.

• JJ Barea had 17 points and 12 assists.

• Jazz defense was great tonight with a defensive rating of 92.2

• The two rookies are at completely different levels right now. Dennis Smith Jr., who is younger than Mitchell, had a brutal night.  He was awful.  His shot has not been falling at all recently and he wasn’t close tonight.  He went 2 for 11 and had 0 assists, 0 steals and 5 turnover, one of them huge late.  Donovan Mitchell didn’t seem great tonight but he finished with 25 points, 6 rebounds, 5 assists, 2 steals on 8 of 20 shooting.  This is without getting going at any point in the night.

• Really solid nights for Favors and Gobert while Dallas was doing a great job of taking away the roll man on the pick and roll. Gobert still went 5 for 6 with 13 points and Favors was 6 for 11 on his way to 14 points

• Jazz bench is scuffling. Tonight they were 2 for 11 from three.  Crowder had 11 points but Burks was -14 in 13 minutes and took 8 shots in 13 minutes.

• Jazz shot 28% from three and won a game.