The Utah Jazz’s skid keeps rolling, but there were a few signs of life in a 115-109 loss to the Miami Heat on Monday night.
Utah dropped its ninth straight game, and the record still looks rough. Still, the night wasn’t empty. Two young players, Darryn Peterson and Ace Bailey, gave the Jazz something to hang onto, and the fourth quarter brought a comeback push that at least showed some fight.
Peterson has been building momentum, and he backed that up again with 25 points on 10-for-19 shooting, including four made threes. After a somewhat lackluster start, he’s starting to show some consistency, though a rookie wall is probably coming at some point.
Bailey’s season has been a different story. The second-year wing has struggled badly with efficiency, and his shot from deep had gone missing.
He’s averaging nearly 12 points, but the 45% shooting from the field and 22.6% from three hasn’t exactly helped his case. Against Miami, though, he finally flashed something better.
Bailey finished with 23 points and went 10-for-15 from the field. The biggest development was his work from outside, where he hit three of five attempts. That kind of night won’t fix everything, but it was a clear step forward for a player who badly needed one.
The Jazz also got a spark from Isaiah Collier, who suddenly looked like Stephen Curry in the fourth quarter as Utah tried to claw back into the game. Tony Bradley, of all people, also made his presence felt, finishing with a plus-17 in the comeback effort.
That push mattered. Utah could have folded when Miami stretched the lead to 23 in the third quarter, especially with the losing streak already sitting at eight games. Instead, the Jazz kept battling and made the Heat work for it.
That’s been a theme lately, just in a different way. In recent games, Utah has been the team throwing punches early and then fading late.
This time, the comeback attempt came after the Heat had started to pull away. It didn’t change the result, but it did show a group still willing to scrap.
The wins still need to come. But at least the Jazz aren’t just drifting through this stretch anymore.
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