Dennis Schröder could not be held against the Utah Jazz. His 41 points are a new career record and the reason why the Atlanta Hawks win surprisingly in Salt Lake City.
What an evening for Dennis Schröder! Against the best defense of the league in the new year, the man from Braunschweig set up a new career high and was simply not to be held by the guards of jazz. Ricky Rubio, Dante Exum, Joe Ingles Jae Crowder – they were all allowed to try against Schröder – and failed.
An important factor was that the jump shot sat this time, among other things Schröder transformed three of his seven throws from a distance. Rubio initially dropped, but the longer the game lasted, the tighter the Spaniard defended the Hawks’ playmaker and then had no chance against the German international’s speed.
There could have been a few more points for Schröder, as he showed unusual weaknesses on the free-throw line (6/10 FT), but he also grabbed 5 rebounds and distributed 7 assists (with only 2 ball losses). Utah actually needed this game in the fight for the playoffs, but Atlanta won the last quarter with 36:27, mainly thanks to 17 points (7/10 FG) from Schröder, who also provided the decisive play.
37 seconds before the end he pulled to the basket at 92:92 and finished with a remarkable floater. Donovan Mitchell (24, 9/28 FG, 1/10 trio) could not counter afterwards. Taurean Prince (11) brought home the game with free throws. Next to him, only Dewayne Dedmon (15, 15 rebounds) scored points, who also always provided strong picks for Schröder.
At Utah, Rubio was the best scorer after Mitchell with 23 points, Rudy Gobert scored 15 points and 16 rebounds. Joe Ingles (16, 1/8 threesome) stayed very cold like Mitchell. Utah have now lost 4 games out of the last 26 games, twice of which they had to admit defeat to the Hawks.