Jazz coach Quin Snyder has seemingly created a play for every situation.
Take Saturday’s loss against the Oklahoma City Thunder. With 1.5 seconds left in the contest, Snyder called timeout to set up his team’s preferred play when they absolutely need a free-throw rebound. That’s something that they had already worked on, planning to shoot the ball as high as possible to give themselves a chance for a miss.
“That gives you a chance for guys to try to make a play; it’s going to be a tip play, and you try to get it on the glass, shoot it high, and hopefully get a play on it," Snyder explained. Here’s the video of the play:
It’s nothing complicated, but Rudy Gobert wrestled Steven Adams under the basket, while Derrick Favors allowed himself to be boxed out all the way to Gobert’s side. That let Jae Crowder come in, and he would have had a pretty open opportunity getting the rebound putback — except that Mitchell’s high free-throw attempt simply swished through.
That’s par for the course for the Jazz, who have scored efficiently out of unusual situations. In their previous matchup against Portland, they had success in plays after winning a jump-ball.
“You don’t have to score out of a set situation,” Snyder said. “It’s an awareness for each other, and a mindset, being aggressive and making the right reads.”
Christmas attire
It was the Jazz’s first matchup on Christmas Day in 21 years, and so many were excited for the chance to show off what they had worn. Chief among those were Jazz broadcaster Craig Bolerjack, who wore a green suit jacket adorned with blinking Christmas lights for his broadcast Tuesday night.
The Jazz’s players, meanwhile, mostly wore their best clothes, but nothing too celebratory of the holiday season.
Portland’s Damian Lillard, though, did something a little unusual: He brought in a Christmas Story leg lamp, even taking it through the metal detector in arena security. The lamp was a facsimile of the original, except that the leg was modeled after Lillard’s, with black tights and his new Adidas shoe.
Perhaps it was simply a sign of Lillard’s intentions for Tuesday: He wanted to shoot the Jazz’s eyes out.
