Voltar
The Utah Jazz's losing streak continued onwards on Friday night during the team's first NBA Cup game of the season against the Dallas Mavericks–– ultimately ending in a 100-112 defeat that takes their overall record down to a brutal 1-8.
But even in the midst of another Jazz loss and their second half collapse, there's still a couple of winners around the roster worth highlighting for how they performed in this one against Dallas.
At the same time, there were a handful of disappointing results around the roster as well that deserve some more attention than usual for one reason or another––making for a perfect time to sort through another batch of winners and losers from the Jazz's start to the new year.
Let's unpack a set of two winners and three losers from the Jazz's latest loss to the Mavericks:
This was yet another disappointing game to add onto a slow start to the season for Svi Mykhailiuk; one where the veteran wing saw a good share of minutes in the second unit, but didn't exactly convert on his opportunities.
Mykhailiuk played 14 minutes, where he totaled a whopping zero points on three attempts from three throughout the game.
Despite averaging just over 16 minutes a game on the season, Mykhailiuk's numbers have been some of the worst he's seen throughout his career: 3.7 points per game on 28.3% from the field and 20.7% from three.
While Mykhailiuk was a pleasant surprise as a role player around this time last season, he's been anything but that through the first nine games of this year. Now, it's becoming harder and harder to justify as to why he's still deserving of a nightly spot in the rotation.
Peterson was heading into this game coming off of one of his most underwhelming games of his rookie season thus far, posting a season-low seven points on 2-8 shooting against the New Orleans Pelicans.
And pretty quickly against Dallas, the Jazz's No. 2 pick managed to put together a solid bounce-back performance: 21 points, two rebounds, and five assists, paired with some really strong numbers defensively thanks to his two steals and three blocks.
What stuck out the most about Peterson's game against the Mavericks was his efficiency on the offensive side of the ball: shooting 50% from the field and 42.9% from three.
Finding some consistency shooting the ball has been a struggle for Peterson through the first eight games of his career, but a strong outing on Friday night might've been just the spark the rookie needed to get back on track as the offensive weapon he was drafted to be.
There's going to be many nights this season where Brice Sensabaugh ends up shining for a high-scoring performance as the Jazz's bench star and spark plug three-level scorer.
This game against the Mavericks was not one of those nights.
Sensabaugh finished with zero points. He shot 0/3 from the field and 0/2 from three. It's the first time this season that Sensabaugh has been held scoreless, and the first time since the 2024-25 season that he's been held scoreless in a game in which he recorded 10 minutes or more.
Don't get used to Sensabaugh being quiet on the offensive end. Every shooter has their off-nights, and Sensabaugh is no exception. The good news is that while he's averaging just 7.9 points per game through the first few weeks of the season, he's paired that with a strong 42.9% from three.
On a more positive note, one player on the Jazz's side who was able to cash in on the offensive side of the ball Friday night was Lauri Markkanen.
When excluding Markkanen's numbers, the Jazz's three-point percentage as a whole against the Mavericks was less than 30%. Markkanen alone finished as Utah's leading scorer on the night by cashing in eight threes on 53.3% shooting from deep for 24 points and eight rebounds.
Markkanen was able to find his way to a ton of positive looks off-the-ball from deep, which is where some of his best offensive production is able to stem from on a nightly basis.
Markkanen's eight threes tie for the second-most that he's posted in a game throughout his career, and marks the first time he's recorded eight threes since the 2024-25 season. The only thing that could've made Markkanen's night even better was getting a win stamped in the books.
This one is a bit head-scratching. In a game where the Jazz struggled on the offensive glass entirely too much, the team decided to give Mo Bamba––one of their more impressive rebounders to start the season––zero minutes over the course of the night in Dallas.
Bamba has been a real bright spot in the Jazz's second unit during the games he's played this season. He's averaged over 17 minutes a night for 8.6 points on 73.1% shooting from the field, 6.6 rebounds, and 1.6 blocks per game.
Bamba also leads the team in average offensive rebounds in a game (2.8), and comes fresh off a game where he collected a season-high five offensive rebounds against the Pelicans. His presence could've been valued in a game script like this, and especially so knowing that Jaren Jackson Jr. and Jusuf Nurkic are still sidelined.
Instead, Bamba wasn't able to build off of his strong start to the season, and logged his fourth DNP of the season.