Yes, the Jazz ended up winning Tuesday night’s game by 15 points, so just by that fact alone, it’s hard to be too critical of them. But there’s a gigantic asterisk to the overall good news: while the Jazz started the second half with their starting lineup, the Raptors instead chose to leave their entire list of starters on the bench.
It’s not that the 27-4 Jazz run that followed is completely void, but, well, it was clear that the Raptors were missing their best players players. Norman Powell missed a three and then turned the ball over, in the first minute of the half, and it’s easy to imagine those plays turning out very differently had Kawhi Leonard or Kyle Lowry been in charge, as they were in the first half.