Youth movement encourages Jazz, who take on inconsistent Heat
The Utah Jazz are pleased with what they've seen from their young core this season, despite the effort not consistently reflected in victories.
For the most part this season, Utah has enjoyed good performances from veteran forward Lauri Markkanen, 28; third-year guard Keyonte George, 22; and others.
The Jazz will get another chance to show off their young talent on Saturday night when they host the Miami Heat in Salt Lake City.
During the Jazz's most recent game, a 126-109 home defeat against the San Antonio Spurs on Thursday, Utah's Ace Bailey showed why he was the No. 5 overall pick in the 2025 NBA Draft.
Bailey scored a career-high 25 points on 11-for-16 shooting and the 19-year-old guard now has back-to-back 20-point games for the second time this season.
"The variety of shots is nice," Utah coach Will Hardy said of Bailey. "I love a player like Ace with his ability to score, having a big night without bombing a lot of jump shots. He did it in such a strategic way.
"He shot the pull-up when he should have, finished cuts, had two tip-ins, and the threes were in the flow of the game," Hardy added.
Utah has lost five of six games, but the team's priority continues to be about development -- Bailey and George, in particular. In addition, veteran big man Jusuf Nurkic has played some of the best basketball of his 12-year career in his first season with the Jazz.
Nurkic, 31, has recorded back-to-back triple doubles, including 17 points, 14 assists and 11 rebounds against San Antonio.
"I'm really, really encouraged from what I'm seeing with this team," Hardy said. "To me, it's about the collective right now. I'm so excited for where we are and where we're going.
"After a game like that, I leave really encouraged," he added. "We continue to show that we can play with anybody. We've played well and had good games against all of the top teams in the league. It's about sustaining it for more minutes."
The Heat, on the other hand, need to find a way to stack up wins quickly. Miami has alternated wins and losses over its last seven games. The Heat are 1-2 during their current five-game West Coast road trip, including a 127-110 loss to the Portland Trail Blazers on Thursday.
The Blazers made 20 threes on 50 attempts against the Heat.
"Overall, they didn't really feel us," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said of the Blazers. "There's a feeling when you're making a team work, when you're making a team have to stress about making shots. I didn't sense that they were stressed out. You can leave yourself susceptible from big shooting nights from a team that might not be doing that on a nightly basis."
The biggest concern for the Heat has been their defense, which is rare for a Spoelstra-coached team. Miami has allowed 117 or more points in nine consecutive games.
"The thing that I've been telling our team is that we have to find a way to win games if we're not necessarily making shots or making threes or if the offense isn't great for us," Spoelstra said. "And I believe we will."