SALT LAKE CITY _ The Nets' brutal seven-game road trip, starting with six Western Conference teams, is what they thought it would be. It's a house of horrors, and on Saturday night at Vivint Smart Home Arena, the Jazz also administered a strong dose of humiliation in a 114-96 victory.
It was the second straight loss on the trip for the Nets (36-35) after their defeat Wednesday in Oklahoma City, and their problems putting the ball in the basket only heightened their recent offensive struggles as owner Mikhail Prokhorov sat courtside watching. They have little time to mope about it because they face a back-to-back against the Clippers Sunday night at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.
Lately, it seems the Nets' offense largely has consisted of point guards D'Angelo Russell and Spencer Dinwiddie taking turns getting their shot rather than creating for others. Not that they aren't trying to create, but no one around them was producing consistently on offense.
Dinwiddie totaled 22 points on 7-for-16 shooting with only one assist, and Russell had 20 points on 8-for-25 shooting. Their combined 41 shots were just shy of half of the Nets' field-goal attempts when both left the game. The Nets were held to 34.7 percent shooting from the field (33 for 95). Caris LeVert (six points on 3-for-12 shooting), Joe Harris (six on 2-for-8), DeMarre Carroll (five on 2-for-9) and Jarrett Allen (four on 0-for-1) all had rough nights.
The Jazz (40-29) got a powerhouse performance from All-Star center Rudy Gobert with 23 points, 16 rebounds and three blocks, Donovan Mitchell topped them with 24 points, and Derrick Favors added 13 points and 12 rebounds.
Before the game began players on both the Jazz and the Nets donned warmup T-shirts that showed a black hand and a white hand clenched in a handshake of brotherhood, and on the back was the word "solidarity." That was a clear reference to an ugly incident earlier in the week when a Jazz fan directed demeaning insults that seemed racially tinged at visiting Russell Westbrook of the Thunder.
Before arriving in Utah, Nets veteran Ed Davis said the team hadn't really discussed the incident, but he added, "It's kind of messed up for the fans in Utah that are good people or good fans, because it could be isolated incidents. Who knows, man? Trust me, that's the least of my worries right now is going to Utah worried about fans. We're trying to get a win here."
Salt Lake City always has been tough on visitors, and the Nets were no exception. Their recent offensive struggles followed them to the Mountain time zone. After building an early eight-point lead, the Nets suddenly went ice cold. The Jazz mounted a 27-2 run that spanned the end of the first quarter and the start of the second as they took a 40-23 lead. Kyle Korver had nine points in that stretch, and the Nets went 0 for 12 from the field with one turnover while going 6:42 between scores at one point.
The Jazz extended that advantage to as much as 20 points before settling for a 59-42 halftime lead. The Nets made only 14 of 49 first-half field-goal attempts (28.6 percent), got outrebounded 35-25, and had just seven assists.
It got even uglier for the Nets in the third quarter when the Jazz put together a 14-2 run, including eight points from Gobert, who was utterly dominant inside, and another six from Mitchell to build a 75-49 lead. Finally, the Nets mustered a response with a 5-for-8 shooting effort from 3-point range in a 15-4 run, including a trio of 3s by Dinwiddie, to cut their deficit to 79-64. But the third quarter ended with the Jazz in complete control with an 83-64 lead.
