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Las Vegas • The summer league championship run for the Utah Jazz is over.
Those dreams ended on Thursday night with a thud in the second round, a resounding 80-60 loss to the Denver Nuggets at Cox Pavilion.
Most of what the Jazz did right in a first-round win over the Portland Trail Blazers on Wednesday went wrong 24 hours later. The ball movement, which was so prevalent against Portland, failed Utah against the Nuggets. The Jazz turned the ball over at a high rate, failed to defend adequately and failed to make shots.
"I thought we were a little tired and they had a little more energy than we did," Jazz summer league coach Mike Wells said. "I think you could tell with our 3-point shooting. Every open look we had seemed to come up short and that's a sign that your legs aren't completely there."
Denver took full advantage of the Jazz and their lack of energy. Utah couldn't control Jamal Murray, the Nuggets' prized lottery pick. The Jazz had difficulty keeping former BYU great Jimmer Fredette out of the lane. Most importantly, Denver played with a bounce on both ends the Jazz weren't able to duplicate, perhaps a product of the Nuggets having a bye to the second round and being off on Wednesday.
The Jazz — who once again played without Trey Lyles — wrap up their summer league on Friday night.
Shaq McKissic, Dionte Christmas and Mike Tobey led the Jazz, each scoring 10 points. Joel Bolomboy grabbed eight rebounds and Tyrone Wallace had four assists.
Murray led the Nuggets with 20 points, while Fredette scored 12, although he shot 3 of 11 from the field.
"We didn't defend tonight as well as we liked," Tobey said. "I thought we were right there in the first half. Obviously the second half was rough for us."
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