INDIANA • The Utah Jazz believe they have made enough noise so far this National Basketball Association (NBA) season to warrant some attention.
Donovan Mitchell scored 27 points, passed off 11 assists and grabbed nine rebounds to spark the NBA-best Utah Jazz to their fourth straight victory on Sunday, beating Indiana 103-95.
The guard matched a career high in assists but just missed a triple double as Utah (19-5) won for the 15th time in 16 games.
The Jazz typically win when they are on song from behind the arc. But on Sunday, they showed they could find different ways to win. On a night when they made just 31 per cent of their three-point attempts, they dominated the boards (61-45) and put in a strong defensive shift, limiting the Pacers to 39.8 per cent shooting.
"We locked in. That's what's different about this team this year, and this is one of the things that shouldn't go unnoticed," Mitchell told The Salt Lake Tribune.
"It's very impressive, what we did, being able to do the little things, to turn up our energy... There were times when we were tired, there were times we had to dig deep, and we did it all."
The Jazz, who lost to the Denver Nuggets in the first round of the play-offs last season, are now the bookmakers' sixth favourites to win the title after the Los Angeles Lakers, Brooklyn Nets, Los Angeles Clippers, Milwaukee Bucks and Philadelphia 76ers.
Forward Bojan Bogdanovic had 18 points for Utah, centre Rudy Gobert added 16 points and 16 rebounds while guard Jordan Clarkson contributed 17 points off the bench.
Indiana fell to 12-12 with a third consecutive loss despite 20 points by Lithuanian forward Domantas Sabonis, who fouled out in the fourth quarter after hitting only seven-of-19 from the floor thanks to Gobert's good defence.
Jazz coach Quin Snyder said: "These are the types of games that you talk about, as far as you don't have your best shooting night (and are dealing with) some of the other things that the road provides, whether it be off a back-to-back, an early start, all those types of things. And that's when your defence has to carry it."
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
