Darryn Peterson scored 25 against the Heat, close to his career high for the 2nd game in a row, and Ace Bailey added 23. Isaiah Collier, who hadn't made a 3 all season, hit 4 straight in the 4th to cut a 20-point deficit to 8. All of that went into a 5th straight loss, though, and it's why Utah sits at 1-10. The Jazz turned it over 18 times to Miami's 8, and blocks from Klay Thompson and Bam Adebayo ended the comeback. Utah's young guards can create offense. They haven't held onto the ball well enough to finish games.
Orlando's 3-7 start comes with the obvious excuse, but the losses before Sacramento were close to home: Boston beat them by 11 and Washington by 9 in Orlando. The Kings win was the best version of this short roster: get ahead early, guard, and lean on Wagner. Utah is a better spot for that than most, because the Jazz's 4th-quarter run against Miami came after Miami had already put the game away. If the Magic can turn Utah's ball security into transition points the way the Heat did, they won't need a big night from anyone but Wagner.
Travel favors the home team. Orlando played late in Sacramento and has to fly to Salt Lake City, while Utah slept in its own beds after the Heat game. The Jazz also get Peterson and Bailey at the start of their careers, when every game counts toward their development. Orlando is a road team that's down to its 8th or 9th man, with a sick Bane on top of it, and just got its 1st win in 2 weeks. The bad news for Utah is that a rotation this young and this thin has already shown it can fall behind by 20 before anyone adjusts.
