Utah Jazz
EMPTYING THE NOGGIN – Ricky Rubio leads Jazz in dominating performance
EMPTYING THE NOGGIN
Summary: The Jazz dominate the Hornets in a no doubt win on their way to the 111-102 their 10th win over the last 11 games
- The Jazz dominated the game tonight and it was never in doubt. The Jazz dominated the game defensively for most of the night. The Hornets couldn’t finish at the rim. They couldn’t hit threes and the Jazz defense was stifling.
- The Jazz were able to keep the Hornets in the half court and in the half court the Hornets were completely incapable of scoring.
- Kemba Walker scored 22 points in the final 5:04 of the game. The Jazz lead by 17 when he started this onslaught. It was impressive I guess but it was completely irrelevant in how the outcome of the game was impacted.
- Kemba Walker was 6 of 17 from the floor tonight with Rudy Gobert on the floor in the first 43 minutes of the game. Then he scored his irrelevant 22 points.
- The game only had 12 possessions left in the final 5 minutes of the game down by 17 there is no relevance to anything that happens.
- The Jazz opened the night with Gobert getting wide open roll after wide open roll to the basket. Charlotte adjusted to this by bringing another defender into the Gobert roll and it bothered the Jazz for a short while but by the end of the night the Jazz had launched 16 corner 3 attempts, making 8
- At one point tonight the Hornets were 1 of 22 from three
- Ricky Rubio was great this evening. He understood exactly what Charlotte was trying to do defensively. He opened the game hitting Gobert time and time again. Then the offense stalled with him off the floor and he got it going again in the 2nd quarter when he returned. He finished the night with 13 assists and was controlling the game. His ball fakes were tremendous. He kills defenses that over shift. He reads it perfectly and Quin Snyder has the team spaced perfectly.
- The Jazz were without Derrick Favors and Kyle Korver plus Dante Exum and the 2nd unit really struggled to score tonight.
- Donovan cruised to a 25 point game.
- Over the last 40 years of the NBA a team with a 2nd year guard or wing player who is the leading scorer without a 2nd scorer has never won more than 47 games. Carmelo Anthony won 47, LeBron James had 45, Vince Carter won 41 and Derrick Rose won 40. Tonight Donovan Mitchell won his 47th
Utah Jazz
LOCKED ON JAZZ – Why so passive? How Harden blows up the Jazz defense? Donovan Mitchell 2nd year playoffs
The Utah Jazz are getting ready for Game #3 v. the Houston Rockets. David Locke, the radio voice of the Utah Jazz and Jazz NBA Insider takes a look at why the Jazz looked so passive in Game 2 in Houston. Then Locke digs into what makes Harden so unique and why he has blown up the #1 defense in the NBA. Locke also takes a look at what other 2nd year players like Donovan Mitchell have done in their 2nd year playoff season.
The Utah Jazz have been blown out in both of the first two games of their first round series with the Houston Rockets. David Locke, the radio voice of the Utah Jazz and Jazz NBA Insider tries to figure out what has happened and why it has happened. Plus, it is a live show so Locke takes your questions from Facebook live.
Summary: The Jazz start poorly, the Rockets pounced and Harden was amazing it all lead to a Rockets blow out of the Jazz.
- The Jazz opened the night turning the ball over on 4 of their first 8 possessions. The Rockets scored 10 points on those 4 turnovers and that would tell the story of the night. The Jazz trailed 12 to 4 at the first time out.
- Then Harden went nuts. He is incredible. He never misses a read. In Game 1 the Jazz took away the step back and free throws. In the first quarter he had as many step backs and as many free throws as he had all of the first game. I really have no idea how you are supposed to guard him, He was 5 of 11 on step back tonight. He makes those at 40%. You have to take that away but the only way to do that is to play him from behind and force him into a drive.
- He has become the perfect modern player. The league values the three. He can make it at nearly 40%. The league knows you can’t afford to have a 40% three point shooter take 15 to 20 threes a game so you have to play him in this strange manner to force him to drive. Harden would take 20 threes if you let him. No one has ever had his three point shooting step back coupled with his handle and his passing. This just destroys the defense. When you force him to drive he has the floater game and he reads the defense perfectly.
- The Jazz defense failed in transition tonight. According to cleaningtheglass the Rockets averaged 1.7 pts per transition and only .94 in the half court. The .94 is a little above average but the Rockets are usually much better than that in the halfcourt. They are the #2 halfcourt team in the NBA. So the Jazz halfcourt defense was actually ok tonight.
- The Jazz offense is where things should be most concerning. The Jazz were not able to score with regularity against the Rockets in the playoffs last year, they weren’t able to score against them in the regular season and they haven’t been able to score against them tonight.
- The Rockets offense averages about 116 pts per 100 possessions. Even if the Jazz have a great defensive night hey will be around 108 but the Jazz offense v. the Rockets all season has been below 1 point per possessions. Until that is fixed it is hard see a scenario where the Jazz defense can hold the Rockets offense down far enough to win a game.
- The talk around the Rockets is that they are a better team than a year ago. A year ago they won 65 games and were a Chris Paul hamstring or a glutton of missed 3s away from winning the title.
- The Jazz average .74 pts in the half court
- Rubio and Crowder are a combined 2 of 14 on open threes.
- The Jazz came into the night 22 of 100 on above the break three point shots v. the Rockets this year. It continued again tonight as the Jazz shot 6 of 27 on above the break 3 and some of those were late.
- The Jazz have lost the first two games by 52 points. The Rockets look to be capable of winning the title
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