Hayward helps Jazz past Nuggets
SALT LAKE CITY -- Gordon Hayward scored 32 points and Rodney Hood added 15 to help the Utah Jazz claim a 105-98 victory over the Denver Nuggets on Saturday night.
Trey Lyles added 12 points off the bench for Utah. The Jazz (12-9) beat the Nuggets for the sixth time in their last seven meetings.
Will Barton and Wilson Chandler each scored 20 points to lead the Nuggets.
Denver (7-13) could not overcome 14 turnovers that led to 14 points for Utah and cold shooting in the third quarter. The Nuggets lost their third straight and for the fifth time in six games.
The Nuggets refused to let the Jazz pull away for an easy win. Trailing 94-71 after a 3-pointer from Joe Johnson, the Nuggets outscored Utah 23-5 during a seven-minute stretch to get back in the game. Barton drilled a 3-pointer and Kenneth Faried followed with a layup on the next possession to cap the run and cut the Jazz lead to 99-94 with 1:51 left.
The Nuggets could not get any closer. Hayward and Shelvin Mack combined for six free throws in the final minute to ice the win for Utah. As a team, the Jazz shot 92.9 percent (26 of 28) from the free throw line.
Denver played with much more energy in the first quarter than during its last trip to Salt Lake City. It helped the Nuggets keep the Jazz from blowing the game open early yet again.
Aggressiveness in the paint helped Denver get some easy baskets and the Nuggets were active in forcing early turnovers. It helped Denver take a 19-16 lead with 3:06 left in the quarter behind a 3-point play from Danilo Gallinari.
Utah retook the lead again on a layup from Joe Ingles and a jumper from Boris Diaw on back-to-back possessions. The Jazz eventually built a 29-23 lead early in the second quarter after Hood completed a three-point play to finish off a 13-4 run.
Chandler kept Utah from pulling away further. He scored a fade-away jumper to halt the run, stole the ball to set up a 3-point play from Faried and made a finger-roll layup to tie it. A jumper from Barton a minute later gave the Nuggets a 37-35 lead with 6:44 remaining in the half.
Utah charged back ahead 44-39 when Ingles sank a 3-pointer and Rudy Gobert threw down an alley oop dunk on back-to-back possessions. The Jazz did not trail the rest of the second quarter. Then they opened the second half on a 15-5 run -- highlighted by back-to-back driving layups from Hayward -- to take a 64-52 lead midway through the third quarter.
Once Hayward heated up in the second half, Denver could not cool him down. Hayward scored 21 points on 8-of-11 shooting from the field in the quarter and found shots from everywhere on the floor. From backdoor layups to long jumpers, he torched the Nuggets' defense in countless ways and effectively crushed their defensive spirit.
Hayward capped his quarter-long outburst with a running dunk in the final seconds of the third quarter to give Utah an 82-63 lead heading into the fourth quarter.
NOTES: Utah G George Hill missed his second straight game with a sprained left big toe. Hill has missed 10 games this season because of injuries. ... Denver C Nikola Jokic missed his second straight game because of a left wrist sprain. ... Nuggets F Kenneth Faried currently averages the most rebounds of any NBA player logging 25 minutes or less per game. Through Denver's first 19 games, Faried is pulling down 9.2 rebounds in 23.8 minutes per game. ... C Rudy Gobert is the first Jazz player to average a double-double through the first 20 games of a season since Al Jefferson did it in 2012-13. Gobert averaged 10.8 points and 11.1 rebounds in his first 20 games.