The Jazz Withstood A Late Grizzlies Rally To Win Game 3 And Take A 2-1 Series Lead

After losing Game 1 in rather stunning fashion to the 8-seeded Grizzlies, the Utah Jazz were able to win Game 2 despite the best efforts of Ja Morant and sent the series to Memphis tied at 1-1. In Game 3 on Saturday, it looked for three quarters like Utah was going to cruise to a win and reassert themselves as the clear favorite in the series, but as has been the case with this Memphis team all year, they just simply would not let Utah get a win that easily.

The Jazz led by as many as 15 and had not trailed all game until a furious fourth quarter rally from Memphis gave them their first lead at 107-105 with five minutes to play. The usual suspects, Morant and Dillon Brooks, led the way, but it was a quick five-point run from Grayson Allen to tie the game with eight minutes to go that lit the FedEx Forum on fire as the belief that they could pull out another comeback win.

However, after trading buckets after Memphis first took the lead, Utah went on a 12-0 run over the next three minutes to shut the door on Memphis’ rally attempt, with Donovan Mitchell, who hadn’t had his best game, taking over down the stretch to push the Jazz to a 121-111 win.

Grizzlies legend Mike Conley had 27 points, including 7 three-pointers, to go along with eight assists and six rebounds to lead the way for Utah much of the night, with Mitchell closing strong to lead all scorers with 29 points despite a 2-of-10 night from deep.

For Memphis, Morant and Brooks had 28 and 27 points, respectively, and Allen’s 17 off the bench was critical in making this game the most competitive and fun of the Saturday slate that had been three blowouts prior to this one. Unfortunately for Memphis, it seemed like they ran out of gas on offense down the stretch as Mitchell found his way to the free throw line and to some clutch buckets to help seal things for Utah.

Game 4 now becomes critical for Memphis to get at least one at home, and they’ll need the continued efforts of Brooks and Morant but to also find someone else to give them consistent offensive production because without a lot of three-point shooting (13-of-41 on Saturday) their margin for error against a Jazz team that bombs away from deep is very slim.