Our preview asked whether Jaren Jackson Jr. could hold the paint against Zach Edey, and it gave us one number to check: Jackson's fouls at halftime. Two or fewer and we liked our chances. He went into the break with two, and Memphis won by 20 anyway.
So the pick (Jazz 117, Grizzlies 112) gets an F, and the question doesn't do much better. Edey played 21 minutes and finished with 6 points and 9 rebounds. He wasn't the story.
Ty Jerome's 45 points will lead every recap this morning, and he earned that. We still don't think he's why this was a 20-point game. The Jazz let Memphis take 17 more shots than they did, 93 to 76, and that's what should worry us before the Pelicans come to the Delta Center on Friday.
Same aim, a lot fewer shots
Memphis shot 47 percent from the field and we shot 46. Both teams made 22 free throws. The two sides made shots at nearly the same rate, and the Grizzlies got to take a lot more of them.
Here's where the extra shots came from. The Jazz turned it over 18 times, lost the boards 63-44 and gave up 23 fast-break points while scoring 9 of their own. Jackson had 5 of those turnovers, and Isaiah Collier had 3 in 16 minutes. Give the ball away and miss the rebound on the other end, and the other team gets to run. Memphis ran.
The gap shows up in the third quarter. We went to the half down 64-51 after losing the second quarter 35-20. Memphis opened the third on an 18-4 run over the first 5:46, and at 82-55 the lead was 27, its biggest of the night. Utah never got it under 15 the rest of the way.
The free-throw line was the one place we got more chances than Memphis, 33 attempts to 28, and we made 22 of them. Eleven misses in a game we were already losing on volume.
Sixteen of Jerome's 45 came in the fourth
Jerome scored 45 on 17-of-25 in 32 minutes, made 6 of 7 at the line and had 6 assists. That's a great night by any measure.
Look at when the points came, though. Sixteen of them were in the fourth quarter, after Memphis had gone up 98-79 through three. We're not expecting a guard to make 17 of 25 against us again on Friday. The 18 turnovers and the 19-rebound gap could easily show up again, and those are what put this out of reach before Jerome's big fourth.
Our halftime test was the wrong one
Jackson picked up four of his six fouls after the break, three of them in the fourth, and fouled out at 5:26 with the game already gone. He finished with 15 points on 6-of-10 shooting in 28 minutes, 5 turnovers and a minus-17. We checked the wrong half.
We're not judging him on one night in his old building. Same for Lauri Markkanen, who went 4 of 13 and 1 of 7 from three and still got to 18 because he made 9 of 10 at the line. Their first game of the season together came without Jusuf Nurkić behind them, and one game in Memphis can't tell us whether that pairing works.
After the final, some fans on X wanted Ace Bailey starting over Jaxson Hayes. We get it. Hayes was minus-27 in 26 minutes, while Bailey scored all 12 of his points in the second half, blocked 3 shots and was minus-5 in 24 minutes off the bench. But Hayes blocked 6 shots, half the team's 12, and swapping a center for a wing won't close a rebounding gap. Not yet.
What we'd keep
Keyonte George was our best player: 22 points on 7-of-12, 4 of 6 from three and 5 assists. Svi Mykhailiuk scored 10 on 4-of-5 shooting in 19 minutes.
Our rookie got the start, and he came out the way the preview hoped. Darryn Peterson scored 5 of the Jazz's first 7 points in his NBA debut. Then the shots dried up. He finished with 9 points on 3-of-7 in 31 minutes, and only 4 of those points came after the first quarter. Seven shots is too few for the No. 2 pick, and getting him more is on Will Hardy as much as on Peterson.
The Jazz led by as many as nine in the first quarter and were up 31-29 after one. Memphis won each of the last three quarters, and that was the game.
Friday against the Pelicans (schedule) is the first look at whether that sticks. Keep the turnovers well under 18 and the boards close, and we'll know if last night was a habit or a hangover.
Take note.
Sources: NBA.com game page and box score for the final, quarter scores, rebounds, turnovers and fast-break points; ESPN box score and play-by-play for player lines, shot totals, foul timing and runs.