Three thoughts on the Utah Jazz’s 103-94 win over the Memphis Grizzlies from Salt Lake Tribune beat writer Andy Larsen.
1. Jazz find energy in the second half
I think sometimes the Jazz get a little bit too formulaic, a little bit too afraid to move out of turn. Tonight, for example, I thought they were exceptionally static in the first half. On offense, the movement all had to happen in the course of two men running pick and roll, everyone else was to maintain strict spacing. On defense, everyone wanted to stick to fundamentals, but unimpressively so.
But sometimes, it takes strategic improvisation to turn a game around. On a play like this, Royce O’Neale is definitely usually supposed to get back on the defensive end to maintain floor balance. But he notices an opportunity to get the rebound if the shot goes long, it does, and he gets a game-changing putback dunk. No one is going to box him out, so he has a pretty good shot at it... why not go for it?
Or look at Rudy Gobert here at the beginning of this play. It would be easy for Gobert to just stand with his arm up trying to dissuade Jonas Valanciunas from throwing a pass, but instead he’s all over JV. Gobert has one hand on his hip, one hand waving wildly to try to get in the way of what the Grizzlies have going on.
“We came out competitive and threw ourselves into the defense,” Quin Snyder said.
I thought Jaren Jackson Jr. had an interesting perspective from the other end. “We have to... expect the team to play harder. We can’t expect them to bring the same energy or drop their energy because they’re losing. They’re probably feeling a type of way, and they’re probably getting amped up.”
The Jazz did actually bring that energy in the second, and it led to stops on the defensive end, and big plays offensively.
2. Forcing bad shots
There were so many times in this game where the Jazz forced themselves into a corner of taking bad shots. Here’s a good example, courtesy of Donovan Mitchell:
Grayson Allen is trailing Mitchell here, but there’s no real reason for Mitchell to have picked up his dribble around the free throw line. There’s nobody making a swipe at the ball from the side, and Allen is safely behind. But Mitchell picks up the ball anyway, and finding himself with no one to pass to, has to attempt this tough left-handed scoop layup.
Ditto here: Conley and Gobert have a two-on-one, both men headed for the paint. A floater here — even though Conley is usually good at floaters, he hasn’t been this season — is a genuine relief for the Memphis defense.
Over and over again, the Jazz took shots like this. In the first half, they did it to the tune of just 40 points in 50 possessions. Gobert set good screens, the Jazz got going downhill towards the basket, and then they’re getting 40% shots out of good situations. Credit to the Grizzlies bigs, who combined for eight blocks for playing good drop-big defense, but a layup or dropoff pass would have been the way to go in a lot of these situations.
Truth be told, looking at the shot chart, I don’t think the midrange shots really decreased in the second half. They took 16 of them from there, and only made six. That’s still too many attempts, and too few makes. But the other shots went down, so that, plus the defense turned things around.
It gets to a problem for the Jazz: they’ve been far too reliant on contested midrange attempts, far too willing to take those early. They still struggle against drop-big defenses, and the offense won’t truly be scary until they figure those out.
3. Bench units without Donovan Mitchell
Ed Davis returned to the Jazz after spending four weeks out due to a fractured left fibula, and it allowed Quin Snyder to change his rotation a little bit. Instead of having Donovan Mitchell leave the game early so that he could play with the second unit, bumping up their offensive production, he played Royce O’Neale in that slot instead.
That meant more minutes with Bojan Bogdanovic and Mitchell out on the court together. In fact, for every single one of the 34 and a half minutes Bogdanovic was on the court, Mitchell was out there too.
That’s hard for opposing units to stop, and you saw it in tonight’s plus minutes: Bogdanovic was a +18, Mitchell a +17 in a 9-point win. The risk of doing this is that the bench won’t be able to keep the game together. While they definitely struggled in the first half, they kept things even in the second. Tougher opponent benches lie ahead, so it’s something to keep an eye on. Joe Ingles will have to play a bigger role in that lineup’s success, and he’s been very up and down so far this season.
Regardless, it means more time for the Jazz’s starting lineup to spend together, which has been excellent. In 229 minutes, they have a +17 net rating so far this season. It also probably gives Bogdanovic and Mitchell some time to learn to play with one another, so that they can build off each other’s offensive threat.
