Utah Jazz
EMPTYING THE NOGGIN – Another superstar wing shoots down the Jazz
SUMMARY: Another wing player has a career day against the Jazz and the Raptors beat the Jazz 122-116.
• Kawhi Leonard was unreal. He dropped 19 points in the 3rd quarter without missing a shot and added another 11 points in the 4th quarter. He finished with a career high 45 points on 16 of 22 shooting and did it without a 3 pointer. Leonard was an amazing 8 for 8 in the restricted area. He wrapped shots around Rudy Gobert like no one in the league is able to do. He stretched out for reverse layups that seemed impossible. His reach is so long that he gets right under the rim, stops and then reaches out for a reverse layup that is impossible to reach for a shot blocker.
• This is the third time the Jazz have run into a hot wing player. James Harden went off in Houston, Paul George was unstoppable in Salt Lake and tonight Kawhi Leonard was too much to handle. These are three best scorers in the NBA right now and the Jazz don’t have an individual defender to handle them. The Jazz are a scheme based defensive team and when these guys go one on one it is something the Jazz defense doesn’t deal with as well. Then when they pick and roll and go at Gobert there are very few players who are capable to make the plays those three players made in these games.
• The impact is the Jazz had a bad defensive night. The Jazz defensive rating was a 122. In 9 of the previous 10 games the Jazz had held their opponent under 100 points per 100 possessions and the Raptors had been under 100 in 6 of the previous 7 but their offensive struggles ended tonight. Leonard and Pascal Siakam were just too much for the Jazz to handle.
• Jae Crowder was brilliant tonight. He had a career high 30 points. Coincidentally, Crowder’s career high at Marquette was 29 points on January 1st as well.
• The Jazz were +14 with Crowder on the floor tonight despite losing by 6.
• Derrick Favors was a beast. He had 21 points and 9 rebounds. He was great on offensive glass and was having a huge impact on the game. Strangely, he was -13 tonight. Jazz starters tonight were outscored 13-9 in the first quarter and then got outscored 22-8 in the 3rd quarter. For the game the Favors and Gobert combination was outscored 35-17. This is hard to overcome. The Jazz outscored the Raptors by 12 the rest of the game.
• Ricky Rubio had a tough night tonight. He went 0 for in the first half and then finished 6 of 17. Donovan Mitchell was 7 of 23, he was 2 of 8 from three and had 3 assists and 3 free throws. The guard line has to be better shooting for the Jazz to win games. Somehow the Jazz still only fell by 6 and had a good offensive game with a 116 despite the shooting 13 of 40 from the starting back court.
• Jazz lead by 2 at the half.
• Add onto the Joe Ingles was just 0 for 5. The first time this year he didn’t have a field goal since late last year.
• Jazz defense didn’t have an impact and had a poor night. Leonard was unreal. The Jazz backcourt and Ingles have bad shooting nights and the Jazz were in the game in the 4th quarter needed one or two plays and the game would have been a one possession night.
The Utah Jazz took care of business this weekend and now head out on a crucial east coast road trip. David Locke, the radio voice of the Utah Jazz and Jazz NBA Insider, takes a look at the playoff picture and how it is all playing out plus the Jazz stellar defense against the Brooklyn Nets.
Then Locke breaks down Bradley Beal and how the Jazz have to defend him and what it takes to deal with him. Most importantly, how can Rudy Gobert impact his game.
Utah Jazz radio team post game show after the Utah Jazz blow out the Brooklyn Nets
SUMMARY: The Jazz go a 27 to 2 run from the first quarter to the second and blow out the Brooklyn Nets on their way to a 114-98 win.
- Rudy Gobert was a dominating defensive force tonight that ruined the rhythm of both D’Angleo Russell and Caris LeVert. Gobert’s length has such an impact on the opponents shot selection that players get uncomfortable because they are not talking their normal looks. The Jazz defense has held 7 of the last 10 opponents to under a point a possession
- This game was interesting because both the Nets and Jazz play an analytics heavy game. The Jazz take the 6th most amount of shots at the rim and the 6th most amount of threes for the 4th most amount of “smart” shots at 76% The Nets take the 12th most amount of shots at the rim and the 4th most amount of 3s for the 5th most amount of smart shots at 75%. Now that is fine expect that both teams defensively take the same approach and deny these shots. The Jazz rank 1st at 62.5% and the Nets rank 2nd at 64% at allowing fewest amount of smart shots. So what happens?
- The defenses won out. The Jazz took 29% of their shots as mid range shots compared the their usual 24% and the Nets shot an unreal 40% of their shots as mid range shots compared to their 25%. Moreover, neither team shot them very well. The Jazz were 8 of 29 and the Nets were 9 of 39. At one point in the game the Nets were 4 of 22 on paint non restricted area shots.
- D’Angle Russell had a miserable night. He finished 2 of 11 on mid range shots.
- Derrick Favors had a sequence of the game when he was so much bigger and stronger than any of the Nets they couldn’t get a rebound. The Nets were trying to play zone and had to bail out of the zone because Favors was too much of a force on the boards
- The Jazz bigs killed the Nets. Rudy Gobert had 23 points and 17 rebounds as well as 3 blocks and Derrick Favors had 13 points, 12 rebounds and 3 blocks.
- The Jazz were able to get off 13 corner 3 attempts which is a lot and a ton when you consider who they were playing. The Jazz are averaging well over 10 corner 3 attempts for the last 10 games.
- Donovan notched another 20 point game. He has had 20 in 28 of his last 30 games
- 13 three pointers for the Jazz. 12 seems to be the magic number for wins
- Solid win now onto the East for a 4 game trip of huge importance.
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