Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
- Utah Jazz defeated Miami Heat 136-100, amid Heat's internal turmoil.
- Brice Sensabaugh scored a career-high 34 points, leading the Jazz's dominant performance.
- Heat's suspension of Jimmy Butler impacted their play, as they struggled to compete.
MIAMI — Utah Jazz head coach Will Hardy didn't think the drama surrounding the Miami Heat would play much of a role in Saturday's game.
The Heat suspended Jimmy Butler for seven games on Friday "for multiple instances of conduct detrimental to the team" and said they will listen to offers for the six-time All-Star.
"I think they have a consistency in their program from a competitive standpoint that it doesn't matter who plays," Hardy said before the game. "You come here, you play Miami in their building, it's going to be 48 minutes of highly competitive, physical basketball."
Or maybe about 12 minutes?
Utah smashed Miami 136-100 on Saturday at Kaseya Center, adding to the Heat's tumultuous weekend.
Brice Sensabaugh had a career-high 34 points and hit seven 3-points to lead the Jazz. John Collins returned after missing the last five games and finished with 24 points on 9-of-16 shooting and nine rebounds. Walker Kessler had 14 points and 16 rebounds, dominating his matchup with Miami's Bam Adebayo.
"That's a great win for our team on the road," Hardy said. "We've had a couple of games that haven't gone our way at the end. But everybody that gets the privilege to be around our team knows that the spirit of the group, the personality of the team, the way the guys are interacting with each other, and the work they're putting in every day is really impressive."
That came out on the court against Miami. The Jazz, dare we say, had fun. In a season that has been at times hard to watch, Saturday proved a nice change of pace. The Jazz shot 52% from the field and 41% from 3-point range, they handed out 31 assists and had six players reach double figures.
Yes, Utah played well but it's hard to imagine the Butler news not playing some kind of role in Saturday's outcome. It was the first Heat game since the Butler drama came to a head, and they got routed by a team that had won just seven games on the season.
"We want to quiet all the distractions; enough has been said. We have clarity and we're just going to focus on this group in the locker room," Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra said before the game. "That's what I want them to focus on and quiet the noise as much as possible. I'm not a clickbait type of coach, so you're not going to get anything else really from me."
Turns out silencing those distractions was easier said than done. Ironically, the team played on its specialized "Heat Culture" court, too — with all the noise along with the lopsided result that was an odd look.
The game was tied 22-22 at the end of the first quarter, but when Collin Sexton hit a midrange jumper at the end of the first half it gave the Jazz a 62-41 lead.
Things only got more and more out of hand from there. Utah never led by less than 20 points in the second half and was up by as much as 43 points.
"It's disappointing when you see the organization and a player going head-to-head like that," Adebayo said Saturday morning, according to the Miami Herald. "But the rest of us (have) got to figure out how to win games. So for me as captain, it's worrying about the other guys and getting them locked in and ready to go to try to compete and win a game."
Maybe he'll have better luck next time.
Once Utah threw its second-quarter punch, the Heat had no response. Adebayo had 4 points, and Tyler Herro only managed 15 as the youthful Jazz pulled further and further away down the stretch.
"I thought it was a great night for us, because we were disruptive," Hardy said. "We had 11 steals tonight. We only gave up five offensive rebounds like we won the possession game by a lot, and that's very important in the league today. We've been on the opposite end of that in some games, and it makes it hard to win."
It was anything but hard to win on Saturday.
