Jazz’s Collin Sexton on Cleveland return: ‘Me and Lauri wanted to win this game so bad’

December 21, 2023

CLEVELAND — You could see the fire in Collin Sexton‘s eyes. As always, the man known as “Young Bull” played with the type of determination Cavaliers fans were used to seeing.

Only this time, Sexton was wearing a Jazz uniform. So was All-Star forward Lauri Markkanen. So was second-year shooting guard Ochai Agbaji.

Those are the three players the Cavs traded to the Jazz before the start of last season as part of the Donovan Mitchell deal.

Mitchell was sick and didn’t play in the Cavs’ 124-116 home win, but others such as Sam Merrill stepped forward. Sexton admitted the loss hurt more than most.

But he was also clearly touched by the smattering of applause he received during player introductions, as well as the tribute video put together by Cleveland. Sexton watched the video, then waved to the crowd.

“Me and Lauri wanted to win this game so bad,” Sexton said. “It definitely felt good how the fans reacted, knowing this is where I came from and how much the community means to me.”

Markkanen was fantastic with 26 points and 10 rebounds, and Sexton wasn’t far behind with 20 points on 7-of-17 shooting, including 3-of-6 on 3-pointers. It was the type of showing that brought back memories of his time with the Cavs.

This season, Markkanen again leads the Jazz in scoring (23.3 ppg) and rebounding (8.6 rpg). Sexton is third on the team in scoring at 15.0 points, and has been on quite the tear lately. But the Jazz (10-18) have struggled with injuries and inconsistency heading into Thursday’s game at Detroit.

As for Wednesday’s loss, Markkanen said the Cavs’ 23 made threes were just too much to overcome.

“Every one of us really believed we could still make a run at the end,” he said. “They just shot the ball really well from three. Once a team makes a couple in a row, they start feeling good and it’s very hard to stop them.”