Jordan Clarkson and six other Utah Jazz scored in double-figures, leading their side to a 122-91 road win over Houston in the 2021-22 NBA Season, Friday morning (Manila time) at the Toyota Center.
It was a historic night for Philippine basketball as this was the first time in the 75 years of the NBA that two players of Filipino descent competed in a game.
Clarkson’s grandmother Marcelina Tullao Kingsolver was from Bacolor, Pampanga while Green’s maternal grandfather hails from Ilocos Sur.
Activities to celebrate Filipino culture were held both in the pre and post-game. But during the game, the Jazz proved to be too much.
Leading 32-18 to close the first stanza, Clarkson spearheaded a 12-2 surge that further pushed Utah’s lead to 20, 44-24.
The lead would go up to as high as 30 points multiple times, with the first coming off a Donovan Mitchell trey with 6:25 left in the third canto that gave Utah an 86-54 lead.
For the protagonists, Clarkson, the reigning sixth man of the year, had 16 points on 6-of-16 shooting from the field with six rebounds and three assists while Green tallied 13 points on 3-of-16 shooting with three rebounds and three assists.
Utah went up to 4-0 while Houston dropped to 1-4.
Rudy Gobert had 16 points with 14 rebounds; Bojan Bogdanovic scored 19 points while Donovan Mitchell chipped in 15 points.
Christian Wood scored 16 points and grabbed seven boards for the Rockets.
