SALT LAKE CITY – The Utah Jazz blitzed a road-weary Brooklyn Nets team after a difficult first half and ran away with a 125-108 victory.
Talen Horton-Tucker and Collin Sexton each scored 27 points for the Jazz who have now won three of their last four games.
Wrapping up their five-game road trip with a 1-4 record, Cam Thomas led the Nets with 32 points.
John Collins May Have Found A Fit At Center
John Collins first season with the Jazz has had its fair share of ups and downs.
The seven-year veteran appears to have regained his three-point shooting touch, but has struggled to move the ball within the Jazz’s offense, and his fit alongside Walker Kessler has been borderline disastrous.
Before missing the last four games due to an illness, Jazz coach Will Hardy experimented with Collins as the team’s backup center, and it resulted in a 20 point, 13 rebound, four block outing in Los Angeles.
“We wanted to try to get him and Walker as much time together as possible early in the year to see what that looks like,” Jazz coach Will Hardy admitted, “I think as we’ve gone on, John is more comfortable as a five.”
After a slow start against the Nets, the Jazz big man hit a buzzer-beating three to close the first quarter, and regained his rhythm over the final three quarters of the game scoring 11 points and grabbing three rebounds playing largely as the backup five.
While those numbers don’t jump off the stat sheet, his +5 in the plus-minus column is a major growth.
Entering Monday’s game, Collins owned the seventh-worst plus-minus in the NBA at -187 in 683 minutes and had had a positive plus-minus just four times in his first 22 appearances.
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“John has shown himself to be really effective when he’s a five because then his spacing adds a whole different element to the team,” Hardy added. “He’s still a great roller on the rim, so it’s taken us a little bit of time to settle into who fits best where but that’s part of our job.”
The Jazz don’t need Collins to be an All-Star, but he can’t be a negative every time he steps on the floor.
Playing backup center might not be the role either Collins or the Jazz expected when he was acquired in early July, but if the move allows him to positively impact the roster, it’s a noteworthy adjustment.
Five Game Road Trip Could Determine Jazz Future
With 27 games behind them, the Jazz are officially a third of the way through the regular season.
