Three thoughts on the Utah Jazz’s 113-109 win over the Golden State Warriors from Salt Lake Tribune Jazz beat writer Andy Larsen.
1. Jazz win one that, I think, they would have lost against any other team
The Golden State Warriors had only eight healthy players for tonight’s contest. But even worse than that, you can make a case that it was eight of their worst players: all of Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, D’Angelo Russell, Draymond Green, and Kevon Looney were out thanks to injury. All that remained were guys on minimum contracts or two-way deals. Truthfully, I believe most of those players are going to be out of the NBA in two seasons. Willie Cauley-Stein, especially, was awful.
And yet, the Jazz only won by four. They turned the ball over 17 times. They needed every one of their 14 threes on 32 attempts. They even had a relatively good night from midrange, going 12-25 from there. In short, they needed a little shot luck too.
After the game, Quin Snyder was most disappointed in his team’s play in the fourth quarter, when they lost a 20-point lead. That is fair. But truth be told, I didn’t think they were playing well even while getting that initial lead, but the Warriors are just such a limited team right now that they were getting ahead anyway.
Here’s the problem: the fact that the Jazz let the Warriors back in this game could hurt them down the road. Saturday night, they play the Pelicans — it’s good luck that they’re another broken team. Then the next day, they embark on a road trip in which they’ll play five games in eight days. They’ll have to play four of the Eastern Conference’s best teams on that trip: Milwaukee, Indiana, Toronto, and Philadelphia. Oh, and after that ends, they’ll fly back and play the Los Angeles Lakers at home.
They’re going to wish they were rested! Unfortunately, all of the starters had to play over thirty minutes to salvage this one. It counts as a win, but it sure felt like a moral loss.
2. The timing on everything in the offense is off
Honestly, the Jazz’s offense is an eyesore right now.
There are brief, beautiful blips where things go right, the ball whirs from side to side, players attack to create advantages for their teammates, and open shots are the result. But more frequent right now are the times where things bog down into ugly situations that the players have to make the best out of.
Like, I get what Donovan Mitchell is trying to do here: he’s trying to get fouled. But from this angle, it doesn’t particularly look like one. And referees are far more likely to call fouls if the defender is at a disadvantage to start a play, which Glenn Robinson isn’t at all.
But he’s trying to make stuff happen, that’s what Mitchell does. And ultimately, you look at his line tonight of 30 points on 24 shots, and it’s not horrendous. That being said, again, they were playing the Warriors, who own the worst defense in the league. The Jazz should have been able to get open shots whenever they wanted.
Sometimes, their plays worked, and generated those open looks. And then the Jazz’s players turned them down. (This play isn’t the best example of a play working to perfection, per se, but the NBA’s video clips are short, so it’s hard to show you a whole play unfolding.)
Royce O’Neale: You are wide open. You are shooting literally 50% from 3-point range this season. Last year, you shot 38%, so even if this year is a small-sample-size fluke, you are still a good 3-point shooter. You even called for the ball. Shoot it! Don’t pass it to Jeff Green — 33% shooter for both his career and this season — in the corner in time for the defense to rotate out.
The same advice goes for Joe Ingles, by the way, who’s been chronically uninvolved in the bench units. Right now, his usage is tied with the lows of his rookie season. That’s when ESPN Zach Lowe wrote this about Ingles: “A drinking game guaranteed to leave you sober: Drink every time Joe Ingles takes a shot!” We’re back there, somehow. Shoot more, Joe.
Again, there are moments where everything works, and you think “okay, they’re starting to figure it out.” The end of the Jazz’s game against Minnesota on Wednesday was one such time. But tonight, I felt, was a step back.
3. The post-game evacuation
Well, that was interesting. As we, the media, waited in the Jazz’s locker room for the players to finish getting dressed so we could interview them, Jazz security staff told everyone that the arena was being evacuated due to a suspicious package. That hasn’t happened in my time covering the team, but it’s the kind of thing that you hear about on the news all the time. Most of the time, of course, there is no bomb, and everything is okay. I would say only a few people showed true concern as everyone was evacuated to the player’s parking lot.
(One player parking lot note I must share: Draymond Green dapped up Rudy Gobert as he walked to the Warriors’ bus. They’re on friendly enough terms for at least that, it turns out.)
Then security pushed us out further, outside of the players’ parking lot. I wasn’t tremendously surprised by that, given the abundance of caution they were showing, but it was notable given that the box was found near the El Chubasco restaurant inside the arena, which is on the very opposite side of the parking lot. Then, we heard that a bomb-sniffing dog had given a positive signal around the box, and it started to feel more likely that something dangerous had really been placed there.
As we were told to at least cross the street away from the arena block, I saw a ton of people coming from two blocks west, some running, some crying, some both. I asked a few of them what had happened, and they had said that someone had been shot at The Complex concert center there, that they had heard about 10 shots, and everyone was getting out. The two events turned out to be unrelated, as was always likely, but it still added to the confusion and feeling of fear. One officer acted as the public information officer on both events, bouncing back and forth between the two scenes.
About two hours later, the bomb squad found that the box was just a stray toolbox, and that the positives given earlier by the dogs were false. I was let back into the arena, along with other arena staff, and retrieved my bag I had left behind. Three people were shot at The Complex, but all are expected to recover. All in all, everything was handled well by both SLCPD, the Jazz, and the security staff at Vivint Arena.
But it certainly was an unusual post-game experience.
