Jazz Defeats Nuggets in Summer League Finale

An all-around productive effort from a dominant 2nd quarter and Jared Butler pushed the Utah Jazz towards a win of 82-72 against the Denver Nuggets during the NBA 2023 Summer League finale on Sunday at Las Vegas’ Cox Pavilion. 

After the tightly contested 1st quarter, the Denver Nuggets emerged with a thin lead at 20-18. The Jazz reciprocated by taking the advantage at 26-12 during the 2nd quarter and going into halftime with an edge of 12 points. The Denver Nuggets struggled to whittle 7 points from their deficit in the 3rd period. Still, the Utah Jazz’s strong and persistent offensive efforts in the last 10 minutes resulted in the most comfortable victory. 

Utah was struggling out the gate and allowed Denver to develop an advantage of 20-10 about 8 minutes into the game. 3’s from the 2-way rookie Johnny Juzang and the 2nd-year guard, Jared Butler, allowed the Utah Jazz to cut its deficit to 2 after the 1st quarter. 

The Nuggets were led by Adonis Arms with twenty points in around 21 minutes, adding 3 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 blocks, and 2 steals. 9 points and 1 assist were delivered by Bryce Wills, whereas Jack White contributed with 7 points, 9 rebounds, 2 assists, and 1 steal. 

The Utah Jazz was led by Jared Butler with 15 points and complemented them with 6 assists, 4 rebounds, 1 steal, and 1 block. 12 points, 4 assists, and 2 steals were supplied by Justin Robinson, whereas James Palmer finished with 1 rebound, 10 points, and 1 steal. Johnny Juzang, the former standout of UCLA, went for 9 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assists, and 1 block.