The Jazz Blitzed The Grizzlies In Game 5 To Cruise To The Second Round

The Jazz and Grizzlies had played nothing but competitive games entering Wednesday’s Game 5, as Utah held a 3-1 series lead by gutting out wins with impressive resolve going up against a young Memphis team that refuses to back down.

However, Game 5 saw the floodgates finally open for Utah as they boatraced the Grizzlies from the opening tip in what ended up being a 126-110 win to end the series and advance to the second round, where they await the winner of the Mavs-Clippers series. Utah put the game away early, as they scored 47 points in the first quarter, led by Donovan Mitchell and capped off by a Mike Conley three as they went up 20 on Memphis going into the second.

There, it was more of the same for Utah, as they lit up the Grizzlies defense, hitting seemingly everything, as Donovan Mitchell piled up 26 first half points as he seemed personally tired of Dillon Brooks and Memphis.

Mitchell finished with 30 points, 10 assists, and six rebounds in the win, leading Utah’s charge to shut the door early on Memphis. Rudy Gobert added 23 points and 15 rebounds as he continued his sensational play in the series, with Jordan Clarkson chipping in 24 points off the bench as he so often does.

The Jazz took a 24-point lead into the half and a 30-point lead into the fourth, as they just refused to let the Grizzlies mount anything close to a real comeback until it was far too late, flexing their offensive firepower in a thorough victory to get themselves to the conference semis. It was a closeout game that didn’t do justice to the rest of the series which, while it ended in five games, was one of the most competitive and entertaining of the first round. While the last game will leave a bad taste in the mouths of the Grizzlies, they have to be encouraged by their play, namely that of Ja Morant who stepped up on the biggest stage and showed he very much belonged. The same issues that we knew Memphis had offensively, headlined by a lack of perimeter shooting as a team, came back to haunt them in this series against a team with seemingly unlimited shooters, but their effort on both ends was tremendous and encouraging for the future.

The Grizzlies will now go into the offseason needing to find some upgrades in the scoring department around Morant, Brooks, and Jonas Valanciunas, but with a clearly bright future ahead. Utah will get some rest and await the end of the Dallas-L.A. series, which could be important as Conley left the game in the first half with hamstring soreness and did not return with the same issue that caused him to miss some games late in the regular season. Getting battle tested by Memphis in the way they did should serve the Jazz well, as they got more of a challenge than most top seeds get in the first round and had to get in playoff mode early to withstand runs and respond over and over again.