Utah Jazz guard Talen Horton-Tucker, right, and center Walker Kessler celebrate their win against the Charlotte Hornets in an NBA basketball game on Saturday, March 11, 2023, in Charlotte, N.C.

Chris Carlson, Associated Press

CHARLOTTE — Three observations from the Utah Jazz’s 119-111 win over the Charlotte Hornets.

Lauri Markkanen’s bad night

At this point, I think it’s pretty fair to say that Lauri Markkanen is not someone that you have to worry about slumping.

He started out the season a little slow from 3-point range, but he knew that the numbers would eventually even out and he so rarely has nights when he can’t find a way to score one way or another that it’s easy to gloss over just how good he is.

That’s why after his game against the Hornets on Saturday all he could really do was laugh.

“It got pretty ridiculous,” he said through chuckles. “I can’t really do anything but laugh about it. I mean, they were all good looks, they felt fine too. I guess it was just one of those nights.”

Markkanen finished the night shooting just 3-of-22 from the field, including going 1-of-8 from 3-point range. His 13% field-goal percentage on Saturday was his worst shooting performance of the season by far. He actually hadn’t had a game where he shot under 30% this year.

“I’ve had some slow halves before and you just think that it’s going to open up, you just have to stay aggressive, but it really didn’t,” Markkanen said with another laugh. “It hasn’t happened in a while. But we got the win and that’s really what’s most important.”

The Jazz’s triple-double drought

Talen Horton-Tucker got one rebound away from breaking the spell. Well, then the NBA took one of his rebounds away so it actually ended up being two rebounds shy of a triple-double, but still … it was just so close.

Alas, the triple-double drought continues for the Utah Jazz.

There hasn’t been a regular season triple-double by a Jazz player since Carlos Boozer notched a triple-double on Feb. 13, 2008, and that streak continues.

Rudy Gobert nearly did it with points rebounds and blocks back in 2021, and there have been a few other close calls including Donovan Mitchell …read more

Source:: Deseret News – Sports News

      

Utah Jazz analysis: Lauri Markkanen laughs off his bad night

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