Jazz and Nets deliver Saturday upsets

Lauri Markkanen (Instagram)

The National Basketball Association is now in its post Christmas stretch, and on Saturday night, the Utah Jazz and Brooklyn Nets delivered significant upsets. The Jazz defeated the San Antonio Spurs 127-114 at the Frost Bank Center in San Antonio, Texas as a 13 point underdog, and then the Nets defeated the Minnesota Timberwolves 123-107 as a 12 point underdog at the Target Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Utah entered their game at 11 wins and 19 losses. San Antonio had a record of 23 wins and seven losses, and just beat the best team in the NBA, the Oklahoma City Thunder, 117-102 on Christmas Day. Brooklyn entered their game at nine wins and 19 losses. Minnesota was at 20 wins and 11 losses.

In the Jazz win over the Spurs, Utah had a dominant second quarter as they outscored San Antonio 38-20. Five Jazz players reached doubled digits in scoring. Forward Lauri Markkanen of Vantaa, Finland had 29 points, guard Keyonte George of Lewisville, Texas had 28 points, point guard Walter Clayton of Sebring, Florida had 17 points off the bench, center Jusuf Nurkic of Tuzia, Bosnia and Herzegovina had 16 points, and small forward Brice Sensabaugh of Orlando, Florida had 11 points.

In the Nets win over the Timberwolves, six Nets players reached double digits in scoring. Shooting guard Cam Thomas of Yokosuka, Japan led Brooklyn with 30 points. His performance was impressive as it came off the bench. Small forward Michael Porter Jr. had the double double (27 points and 10 rebounds), center Nic Claxton of Greenville, South Carolina had 14 points, power forward Noah Clowney of Spartansburg, South Carolina and power forward Danny Wolf of Glencoe, Illinois had 11 points each, and center Day’Ron Sharpe of Greenville, North Carolina had 10 points. This was Brooklyn’s third straight win as they also beat the Toronto Raptors 96-81 on December 21 and the Philadelphia 76ers 114-106 on December 23.