The Utah Jazz were supposed to be in full-blown tank mode this season. They traded away with their two biggest stars Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell while also shipping out the likes of Bojan Bogdanovic and Royce O’Neale. The Jazz looked poised to be prime contenders to potentially land Victor Wembanyama in the 2023 NBA Draft but the players clearly had different ideas.
They stomped the Denver Nuggets 123-102 in their opener in one of the more surprising results in the NBA so far, as Denver is very much expected to make a deep playoff run this season. While the result was dismissed as an aberration, the Jazz showed that it was no fluke as they took down another heavyweight in the Minnesota Timberwolves tonight.
NBA Fans React To The Jazz’s Stunning OT Win Over The Timberwolves
Minnesota had seemingly elevated itself to among the top-tier teams in the Western Conference after acquiring Gobert from the Jazz and Gobert admitted before the game that it was going to be weird to play against his former team. He also said it was going to be fun but he clearly wasn’t too happy after the game, as the Jazz won 132-126 in OT. NBA fans were left stunned by this impressive win.
The Jazz really just upset the Timberwolves 132-126 😳 pic.twitter.com/hTuEXduxb2
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) October 22, 2022
“Jazz better without Spida and Rudy”
“Yall told me the Timberwolves were scary”
“They blew out the nuggets and beat the wolves, jazz might be Fr “
“The timberwolves added all that just to lose to the gutted jazz roster “
“First failed tank in nba history”
“How are they winning like fr “
“Jazz are contenders”
“Upping the trade value for all the vets on the team, incredible job by ainge to get more assets, after the first few weeks the tank will begin”
“Make it seem like you’re not tanking in October so you can go on 14 game losing streaks in January. Respect.”
“Doesn’t look like tanking to me”
“So Gobert and Spida were the problem after all.”
“Jazz won the trade”
“Jazz seem to have forgotten they are supposed to be tanking.”
“What IS going on in Utah?”
“Utah for 2023 Champs”
“Maybe they don’t want to waste a year and they actually care about the game!!!! ♂️”
“This has gotta be the funniest W so far this season”
“We better without Rudy”
“really better than the lakers”
“Jazz fr don’t want Wembanyama lmao”
Jordan Clarkson led the way for the Jazz with 29 points while Lauri Markkanen had 24 in this stunning win. As for the Jazz, Anthony Edwards had a game-high 30 points but Gobert had a rough night, as he only scored 9 points on 4/10 shooting from the field. He did grab 23 rebounds but missed 2 crucial free throws which would have tied the game late in OT.
The Jazz probably won’t go too far but this is still a fine start to the season and they might just end up trading some of these players when their stock is high, to get more good picks. They get the Pelicans next who are also 2-0 while the Wolves face the Thunder.
