Three thoughts on the Utah Jazz’s 114-107 win over the Charlotte Hornets from Salt Lake Tribune Jazz beat writer Andy Larsen.
1. Rudy Gobert’s brilliance forces Hornets to adjust, Jazz take advantage
Rudy Gobert played his best quarter of the season in the first quarter, showing off all of his usual Gobert tricks — rim protection, rolling for the finish, offensive rebounds — plus all of the things he’s developed recently. That quarter finished with a double-double for the big man in only 9 minutes of play: 11 points, 10 rebounds.
First, I want to show you his excellent defense on the perimeter. The Hornets were targeting the switch, trying to get Gobert to come out to guard Devonte Graham. He did, but the results weren’t favorable to Graham; in fact, he never scored on a switch all night.
He also did a great job of sealing off the Hornets help defense on Jazz drives, so Donovan Mitchell and Royce O’Neale could get easy baskets.
Finally, he showed the ability to catch the ball and run to the rim from the perimeter, not just on lob passes or passes close to the rim.
This forced the Hornets to change everything about how they defended. All of a sudden, they were forced to hold Gobert as he dove to the rim, meaning they got cheap fouls early in possessions. Bogdanovic took advantage while the Jazz were in the bonus. And when that didn’t work, they had to tag Gobert as he rolled, collapsing off the corner. As a result, the Jazz were able to find easy corner threes time and time again.
This was Gobert’s game; he finished with 17 points, 19 rebounds, 4 blocks, and a game high+16 when he was on the court. Jazz fans know that Gobert hasn’t always gotten the recognition he deserves — in particular, last year’s All-Star game snub was shocking — but his teammates recognize his value. Afterwards, Mitchell jumped all over Gobert as he tried to give his postgame interview, giving the big man a hug and a push in the chest.
He knows Gobert’s worth: Rudy is the one who changes everything for the Jazz.
2. Bench struggled again, so Snyder made adjustments
In the three minutes and 25 seconds after Gobert left the game, the Jazz were outscored by 12 points. This is not a new issue.
Snyder called timeout to stop the run at the beginning of the second quarter, and the bench did stabilize to even play after that. But when the second half came rolling around, Snyder changed up his bench rotation, putting Tony Bradley in the game rather than veteran center Ed Davis.
Bradley committed four fouls in his two and half minutes out there, though I thought two of those fouls were dubious. And even though he fouled that frequently, the Jazz outscored the Hornets by four over those two minutes and change.
More than I realized at the beginning of the season, Ed Davis’ inability to roll to the rim and finish short-circuits everything the Jazz are used to doing offensively. I thought Snyder would be able to scheme around this, but without a perimeter threat like Kyle Korver, he really hasn’t been able to.
Davis frequently will dive to the rim but without even looking at the ball, which basically takes him out of the play. Defenses know this, and they’re not selling out or even nodding at to prevent Davis’ roll, they’re hardly even nodding at it. That allows them to focus on everything else the Jazz do, and they don’t have the talent to break down stationary defenses. Many turnovers result.
Bradley is young, mistake prone, and defensively flat-footed at times. But when the Jazz’s offense with the bench unit is resulting in turnovers that are being slammed down their throat on the other end in transition baskets, it’s worth inserting an offensive threat out there to try to change things.
We’ll see what happens. Davis is not the lone problem here: Jeff Green looks uninterested at times, Georges Niang looks undisciplined, and Emmanuel Mudiay — who was excellent Saturday afternoon — sometimes can revert to his old self. But a change was made, and I’m glad it was.
3. 5-game winning streak
These have all been games that you would have expected the Jazz to win. Minnesota, Golden State, Orlando, Atlanta, and Charlotte all have sub-.500 records. And at times, it’s been ugly: the Jazz have needed to come back in every single game in order to win.
Clearly, the bench is still a problem. Clearly, turnovers are still a problem. Clearly, transition defense, after those turnovers and after missed shots alike, is still a problem. The Jazz are not perfect.
But I think it’s worth noting what they’ve done well. Clearly, the Jazz’s units involving Bogdanovic, Conley, Gobert, Ingles, Mitchell, and O’Neale are very good, and even those involving Mudiay with those six have been good recently. Tonight, the starters were +6, but the lineup with Mudiay instead of Mitchell was a +10 in only 8 minutes on the court.
They’ve finished games extremely well. Matt Harpring had a good point about this during the Jazz’s broadcast: games slow down in the fourth quarter, and that suits the Jazz. Gobert can do his thing in the paint, while offensively, they’re skilled enough with Mitchell and Bogdanovic to get points in the half-court. Mitchell has made terrific decisions in his last few games.
They’ve also been very good at shooting the three: only against the Atlanta Hawks did they shoot below 40% on this 5-game stretch.
Certain more superstitious Jazz fans might also note that they’ve avoided wearing the yellow “Statement” jerseys during this stretch, or that the Jazz have won five in a row since Donovan Mitchell changed his Twitter avatar to a photo of Baby Yoda, or that they’ve gone undefeated since the “Dr. Jazz,” a wrestling heel the Minnesota Timberwolves invented, appeared to suffer fatal injuries during a timeout. Maybe it’s those things, too.
