Much of the conversation about Utah Jazz this season has been about their rebuilding process, refueling and acquisition of one of the best elections in the 2025 NBA draft.
By the way, the beginner in his team that stands out most right now is the one who was not selected in the first round. In Wednesday’s victory 133-126 Overtime over Portland collected first-year Duke product Kyle Filipowski’s career piles in points (30) and Rebounds (18) to go with five assists and three steals.
Filipowski will have two more excursions to gain more experience as a beginner, including Friday’s home final for Jazz (17-63) against Oklahoma City Thunder (66-14) in Salt Lake City.
“From the state point of view, it is his best game as a professional,” said jazz coach Will Hardy after Wednesday’s great performance. “I think Flip did a really good job tonight to use the threat from the three balls to do much of the other things he is really good at.”
Filipowski, who slipped to Utah early in the second round of last year’s draft, met a couple of 3 points and shot 13-for-17 from the field on the way to his career evening against Trail Blazers. He had a game-binding can with 2.8 seconds left in the regulation and then played a key role in overtime to help jazz snap a nine-game skid.
“It’s the flip I grew up with,” said Utah Guard Keyonte George. “Being on (team) USA to see him on (Aau) circle, I don’t even know how to explain it, it’s his game. That’s who he is. He can be that kind of guy every night.”
Although they pulled off a rare victory Wednesday, jazz has still lost 19 of its last 21 games. They are currently tied up with Washington Wizards for the worst record in the NBA.
Thunder, meanwhile, also has two matches left on his schedule. They need a win or a Cleveland loss to secure the best record in the league. OKC has already packed the No. 1 seed throughout the Western Conference final game.
Oklahoma City comes from a victory on 125-112 road across Phoenix on Wednesday, a result that eliminated Suns from the battle season.
With Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (Shin) on the page, Jalen Williams led Thunder with 33 points, seven returns, five assists and three steals. Chet Holmgren added 22 points and 10 boards, while Alex Caruso had 19 points, five returns and five steals.
Williams joked that Caruso’s stalk on the state magazine must have been a typo but then complemented his teammate to set the defensive pace.
“I thought AC was really good for us,” Williams said. “I think AC started us to play defense, get back to our identity. We started in the third quarter with 13 out of 15 stops. Being able to do it and fine -tuning what makes us good, I think we did a really good job with it and we were special one to five.”
Although there is nothing on the line with Friday’s game apart from a potential season series for OKC, which won the first three races, Williams said that these games can still be important when Thunder approaches the season.
“I try to use many of these games as representatives,” he said, “and treats them as close to the playoffs as I can regardless of who we play.”
-Field level media
