Ever since their season-opening blitz in Portland, the Utah Jazz have been chasing that same level of play.
Sunday night in San Antonio was probably the closest they’ve come to it since — though their 130-109 victory may have had as much to do with the failings of the Spurs.
Still, Bojan Bogdanovic and Donovan Mitchell had bounce-back performances, totaling 28 and 22 points, respectively, as the Jazz got their fits-and-starts offense back in gear in the first installment of their seven-game road trip.
Here are some thoughts and observations from the game:
Spurs weren’t physical, and the Jazz noticed
After struggling to get into their offense and slogging through the muck created by the likes of aggressive perimeter defenders such as Malik Beasley, Lu Dort, and Jevon Carter, the Spurs’ defense must have felt like a pillow fight in comparison.
San Antonio did not offer up much resistance, and the Jazz were able to capitalize. Whether able to simply initiate halfcourt offense faster, or getting into transition opportunities, they simply created a ton of open looks — going 11 of 22 from 3-point range in the first half, then again turning the game into a blowout by starting the third quarter 5 of 7 from deep.
For the game, the Jazz shot 55.1% overall and went 21 of 41 beyond the arc.
They’re still committing too many turnovers
Really, Utah’s only downer from the opening half was the nine turnovers it committed.
Right after the Jazz got up 50-29, a few lazy passes in a row were the primary culprit in San Antonio cutting its deficit to single digits by virtue of a 13-0 run.
Mitchell, who is still picking up the nuances of being a lead playmaker, had three of those cough-ups before the break.
The Jazz finished with 20 turnovers for the game. While they were able to shoot their way out of such mistakes in the second half, against a better team, or at least a more defensively stout one, they might have trouble doing that.
3-point line? Great. Free-throw line? Yikes.
Remember back in training camp when Rudy Gobert said he’d been working hard to become a better free-throw shooter? No reason to doubt the truthfulness of his assertion, but the results simply haven’t been there, as he finished 3 of 6 at the stripe Sunday.
Thing is, the team as a whole was not great there, as they finished 11 for 19 — just 57.9%. Obviously that’s a far-lower conversion rate than is customary, and it didn’t hurt them against the Spurs, but it’s something they’ll need to clean up going forward.
Rudy Gobert was a difference-maker yet again
Shaquille O’Neal made headlines the other day by taking a shot at Gobert and his new $205 million contract extension. “I’m not gonna hate, but this should be an inspiration to all the little kids out there,” O’Neal said. “You average 11 points in the NBA, you can get 200 million.”
Look, Shaq is a Hall of Famer, one of the legit best ever to do it. But this yearslong petty nonsense of denigrating the efforts of modern centers is just silly at this point. Yup, Gobert averages 11.8 ppg for his career; not sure if Shaq is aware of this or not, but the Frenchman is also an absolute game-wrecker on the defensive end — an accomplishment O’Neal himself can’t claim.
We saw the impact of Gobert on Friday against the Clippers — they were determined to challenge him, and their efficiency faltered as a result. On Sunday, the Spurs were not similarly foolhardy, but Gobert’s interior defense again rendered them ineffective.
Even as he totaled only seven points on 2-for-7 shooting, he also contributed 16 rebounds and six blocks.
from The Salt Lake Tribune https://ift.tt/352zMVW
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