SUMMARY: In a game that had all the piss and vineagar you would anticipate from two Western Conference foes the Jazz came out ahead with a 114-108 win over the Denver Nuggets.
• The Jazz needed this win after the loss to Portland. This is an important 5 game stretch and the Jazz needed to show they could beat a top team in the Western Conference.

• The game had everything. Things got chippy early when Derrick Favors and Mason Plumlee got into and both got ejected. Nikola Jokic got into Jae Crowder’s chest for an extended period of time and somehow no officials even too notice and the emotions ran high all night long.

• The Jazz came with an offensive game plan to take advantage of the Nuggets two weaknesses. The Nuggets are 27th at allowing shots at the rim and they allow the most corner 3 shots in the NBA. The Nuggets blitz the ball on the pick and roll allowing Jokic to attack the ball rather than retreat. Jokic said last year that he doesn’t like dropping and being in retreat.

• The Jazz exploited this very similar to how they did to the LA Clippers. The Jazz got off the ball when the blitz came and started moving it and set a franchise record in the first half with three point makes and three point attempts.

• The Jazz ended up taking 17 corner 3s in the game. That is a stunning number. The Jazz take the 2nd most amount of corner 3s 11.2%. The Nuggets allow the most at 10.6%. The Jazz shattered that number taking 17 of 88 shots as corner 3s, 19%

• The Jazz took at 55-50 lead in the 2nd quarter and the game didn’t get inside 4 points until the final moments

• Ricky Rubio started on fire tonight with 8 points and 3 assists and sparked the Jazz to a 10-2 start.

• The altercation between Derrick Favors and Mason Plumlee seemed to spark the Nuggets.

• The Jazz offensive plan, which was largely helped by shots going in, continued to flummox the Nuggets until they finally bailed on their defensive plan and went to dropping the big and playing more like Portland but that is not how they usually play and they never were able to slow down the Jazz offense.

• The Jazz offensive rating was a 116 and defensive rating was a 110.

• Donovan Mitchell went over 30 for the 5th time in 8 games. He had 35 and had 12 in the 4th quarter. Donovan took over the game to open the 4th quarter and lead the Jazz to the win. He also had 6 assists and 6 rebounds. HE went to the line 9 times and took 10 threes. It was close to a perfect offensive game if some guy Harden hadn’t been created

• Nikola Jokic had 28 points, 21 rebounds, 6 assists and 2 steals.

• Rudy Gobert had 15 points, 10 rebounds, 3 assist, 3 blocks and was a +15 in his 37 minutes

• Joe Ingles tied a season high 8 assists to go along with his 4 three pointers and 14 points and 5 rebounds.

• When Kyle Korver hits 3 three pointers the Jazz are now 11-0. He was 3 for 6.

• Jazz had to go periods of the game with Georges Niang and Epke Udoh as the front court with Derrick Favors ejected and Thabo unavailable.

• Paul Millsap only played 18 minutes and didn’t finish the game for the Nuggets.

• Jazz eight straight win over Denver in Utah.