Utah Jazz
EMPTYING THE NOGGIN – Rubio grasping the freedom and leading the Jazz
SUMMARY: Jazz inch another step closer to the playoffs with a 117 to 110 win over the Lakers.
- The Lakers started red hot hitting 8 straight shots and not missing a shot until the 6:29 mark of the 1st quarter but the Jazz offense was good enough to match the Lakers all night and finally take control of the game.
- Ricky Rubio continues his torid play in this playoff push. Tonight he scored 31 points. This is the 5th time in his NBA career he has scored 30 or more points all 5 of them have happened since March 30th of last year. 4 of them this season with the Jazz. Rubio has increased his shooting volume and at the same time had a career high FG% and 3pt%. This is the first time he has had a coach that has given him an entire green light to play with freedom. Over the past 10 games prior to tonight he was averaging 17 points, 6 rebounds and 6 assists. He has made over 50% of his three point shots.
- Rubio has worked diligently with coach Igor Kokoskov to engage his hips is his shooting and engage his whole body. It seems to be working. He is playing with immense confidence
- The other thing that has become clear is how much Ricky Rubio understands Quins system. Early this year he was throwing the ball all over the gym with these bizarre crazy passes and now he understands how each play is designed and what Quin’s system is doing to the defense. One play that jumped out tonight was Rubio brought the ball up the court and had the elbow set where two men are waiting at the corner of the free throw line. One was Donovan and the other was Gobert. Rubio went to Donovan’s side and the play is for Donovan to flair back to Gobert’s side where he then gets the ball and a pick from Gobert but instead as Rubio ran off Mitchell he exploded to the basket and the defender had to grab him. This was the first time I had seen him do this. It really is a stress on the defense. Ingles is sitting in the corner so you don’t want to leave him and if Mitchell’s defender stay too attached to Mitchell then Rubio can beat his man and there is no one to help. Rubio didn’t do this earlier this year.
- Derrick Favors was great again tonight. He gives you so many options defensively and is making a ton of plays offensively. What I love is he came into the game as pure power and now there is a subtlety to his game. He is hitting little floaters. He is defending on the perimeter. He makes a ton of plays that others can’t make and lead to winning.
- The Jazz defense never slowed down the Lakers tonight. This was an offensive win.
- Donovan Mitchell is having a historic rookie season. Since 1958 the only rookies who have lead their team and scoring and won more games are Larry Bird (61) in 1979-80, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (56) in 1969-70, David Robinson (56) in 1989-90, Wilt Chamberlin (49) in 1959-60. In the last 20 years the only players that had more games with 20 or 25 points in a game are Blake Griffin and Carmelo Anthony. Tonight was Donovan’s 44th night with 20 or more points tying Kevin Durant’s rookie year.
- Donovan is the 7th player in 20 years to score 20 points a game as a rookie. It is remarkable.
- Rudy Gobert had 5 assists tonight to go with his 12 points, 16 rebounds, 2 steals and 3 blocks. He is crazy good.
- Jazz have 26 of 31. According to fivethiryeight our playoff chances are up to 99%. YEAH !!!!!
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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