NBA-leading Jazz deal Thunder seventh straight loss
SALT LAKE CITY: Bojan Bogdanovic knew the Jazz would look to him to take a leading role with three of Utah’s primary players out.
Bogdanovic scored 23 points and Donovan Mitchell added 22 as the Utah Jazz beat the struggling Oklahoma City Thunder 106-96 on Tuesday (Wednesday in Manila).
“We had guys out on this backto-back, so we ran way more sets of fences for me so I was able to get to the basket and draw the fouls,” Bogdanovic said.
Luguentz Dort scored careerhigh 42 points and Moses Brown had 12 points and 15 rebounds for the Thunder, who have lost seven in a row and 10 of 11.
Bogdanovic, who scored a season-high 33 points in his last game, left his familiar spot on the perimeter and repeatedly took the ball to the basket. He finished with a season-high 10for-10 shooting from the free throw line.
“I knew I had to be more aggressive these last two games,” Bogdanovic said.
Mitchell, who averaged over 40 points in his previous four games, didn’t need to be nearly as dominant against the Thunder.
rudy Gobert had 13 points, 14 rebounds and seven blocks for Utah, which held the Thunder to 38.7 percent shooting.
Durant, Nets top Wolves in makeup game after shooting
Kevin Durant scored 31 points on 11-for-15 shooting in his most productive performance in 2 1/2 months, as the Brooklyn Nets blew out the Minnesota Timberwolves, 127-97.
The game was rescheduled from the previous night, in the aftermath of a fatal police shooting of a Black man in a nearby suburb. The Timberwolves held a moment of silence before tipoff for 20-year-old Daunte Wright, who was killed after a traffic stop.
Durant played 27 minutes in his third game back from a strained left hamstring that kept him out for 23 games. The Nets, missing James Harden, Kyrie Irving and LaMarcus Aldridge, were in command from the jump and ahead by 23 points before the midpoint of the second quarter. They built their lead as big as 45 points early in the fourth quarter.
Joe Harris pitched in 23 points for the Nets, who had 31 assists on 46 made baskets.
Anthony Edwards had 27 points and eight rebounds for the Timberwolves, who played without Karl-Anthony Towns on the one-year anniversary of his mother’s death from Covid-19 complications.