Jakob Poeltl opened up the scoring for the game with a layup, and the Devin Vassell and Keldon Johnson took over for an early 11-5 lead for the Silver and Black. Collin Sexton heated up to an extent but defense dominated on both ends as both teams had trouble putting the ball into the hoop, often because of spectacular blocks from the bigs. The Spurs finished the quarter strong, except for an unfortunate turnover on an inbound pass, and led 31-26 at the end of 12 minutes on a buzzer beater scoop shot from Doug McDermott.

The Spurs extended their lead to double digits early in the second, despite cold shooting from the Silver and Black, because the players in the banana uniforms were even colder to start. That didn’t last, as the boys in yellow started to find the range, and the Spurs didn’t do a good enough job holding onto the rock and the Jazz tied the game at 44 with 5 minutes left. The Spurs answered with a 12-3 run of their own, and the Spurs held onto a 63-56 lead at the half, which could have been more except for Vassell uncharacteristically missing 2 out of 3 free throws at the end of the quarter.

The Spurs started the third with active defense and businesslike offense, stretching the lead to 13 on a triple from Tre Jones and a pair of free throws from Vassell. The Spurs took off after a sequence with a dunk by Sochan after a fortunate no-call on a Keldon Johnson carrying violation, which led to a technical foul on Will Hardy, adding insult to injury. The Spurs pushed the lead to 20, which was blunted by a Jeremy Clarkson charge that kept the Spurs from running away, as the Silver and Black led 96-82 after three.

The game got really physical at the start of the fourth, as the Walkers (Kessler and Alexander) were pounding the paint for the Jazz, and along with Markkanen, and the Jazz brought the Spurs to single digits a little more than 3 minutes into the quarter. Then something unexpected happened: instead of losing their composure as the other team steamrollered them, the Spurs stood up and started to play with poise and physicality, and held on to the lead, and even began to increase it a bit. Lauri Markkanen did his part to keep the Jazz in it by dominating whoever the Spurs put on him, but with Malaki Branham helping out with bring the ball up court, the Spurs were able to limit turnovers and hold on until the last two minutes where things got a little interesting, as a bad foul from Sochan followed by a turnover allowed the Jazz to go on a 10-0 run and cut the lead to just four points with 80 seconds left. All of the poise the Spurs exhibited earlier was now gone. Luckily for the Spurs, Malik Beasley’s shot to cut the lead to a point swirled out, and Tre Jones finished out the game with a pair of timely baskets as the Spurs won 126-122.