Bogdanovic, Clarkson, Jazz roll past Knicks
Bojan Bogdanovic scored 20 points, and Emmanuel Mudiay added a seasonhigh 20 off the bench to lead the Utah Jazz to a 128-104 victory over the New York Knicks on Wednesday night in Salt lake City, Utah.
Rudy Gobert added 16 points and 16 rebounds, Donovan Mitchell chipped in 16 points, Jordan Clarkson had 11 and three others scored in double figures for the Utah Jazz who won for the 12th time in its last 13 games and notched their seventh straight victory overall.
Frank Ntilikina led New York with 16 points. Elfrid Payton and Bobby Portis finished with 13 points apiece. The Knicks lost all four games on their Western Conference road trip.
Utah outscored New York 60-38 in the paint.
The Knicks played without their top two scorers. Marcus Morris missed his second straight game because of a sore neck. Julius Randle sat out due to personal reasons. Their absence made it tough for New York to keep up with Utah’s efficient offense and tough defense.
Utah raced off to a quick start on offense in the first quarter. Gobert had a pair of dunks to fuel an 11-0 run. Jordan Clarkson capped it off with a steal and layup that gave the Jazz a 30-16 lead.
New York rallied early in the second quarter. The Knicks cut the deficit to six points when Damyean Dotson put back his own missed layup to trim Utah’s lead to 46-40.
The Jazz pulled away a second time before halftime. Utah ripped off an 18-4 run, starting with a Clarkson 3-pointer and ending with a Gobert dunk, to boost its lead to 64-44.
Utah shot 65 percent from the field in the first half and did damage both inside and outside. The Jazz scored 30 points in the paint and made nine 3-pointers.
It did not get better for New York. The Jazz opened the second half with 10 straight points, capped by a dunk from Mitchell, and extended their lead to 82-53, the largest it would get all game.