Los Angeles • Three thoughts on the Utah Jazz’s 120-107 win over the L.A. Clippers from Salt Lake Tribune Jazz beat writer Andy Larsen.
1. Jazz defensively executed in an excellent fourth quarter
The Jazz came into the fourth quarter up just one point. The bench bled a few more points, meaning the Jazz were down 3 before Jordan Clarkson was fouled on a 3-point attempt. And from there, the starters took over and played brilliantly, especially on the defensive end.
This play is two-man pick-and-roll defense at its finest. Royce O’Neale goes over the screen, dissuading Paul George from taking the 3-point shot he’s excellent at. So he goes into the paint, and Rudy Gobert successfully delays George: he jabs toward him to prevent the shot, and steps back to prevent the lob. Then, O’Neale can get back in front to contest the mid-range jump shot, thus forcing the bad pass to Ivica Zubac.
Another thing the Jazz did well: finishing out possessions with defensive rebounds. The Clippers had two offensive rebounds in the fourth quarter, while the Jazz had 13 defensive rebounds. That’s an excellent ratio. I do wonder what would have happened if Montrezl Harrell would have been available, but he wasn’t, and the Jazz rarely gave the Clippers second life.
For what it’s worth, I don’t think the Clippers executed especially well late, either. Some of that was plain-old shotmaking: you’d bet on Kawhi Leonard to make most of his 10 foot shots over Jordan Clarkson, but he missed the one he took tonight in the fourth. But I also thought they settled. Leonard was happy to take contested shots, and George took some quickly. The Jazz got a little bit lucky that those star players didn’t make those shots they’re capable of, but they also weren’t great looks.
Still, it’s another late win for the Jazz. Last year, the Jazz were 15-18 when a game was within five points with five or fewer minutes to go. This year, they’re 15-6. That makes a huge difference in overall record, obviously: last year on this date, they were 17-19, now they’re 20-12.
2. Jordan Clarkson impressions, take two
Jordan Clarkson was a lot better in his second game than his first one. Who would have imagined that having practices help basketball players?
For the second consecutive game, he was the Jazz’s leading bench-scorer and minutes-getter. Tonight, he scored 19 points in 24 minutes, and was the only bench player with a positive plus-minus.
His ability to score really helps this second unit, I think. Tonight, he had a personal 10-0 run in the 2nd quarter where all of the points were either assisted by or scored by Clarkson. Salt City Hoops’ Dan Clayton had a good point on Clarkson, I thought, when he tweeted that he thought Clarkson was one of the Jazz’s best players at using screens. Given how screen-heavy the Jazz’s offense is, that could be really helpful.
One big reason Clarkson is a good scorer is his intelligence in pick and roll. He can run around it, obviously, but his first-step quickness also means he’s more dangerous in rejecting the screen to force rotations than anyone on the Jazz.
What I think is interesting is how adamant Quin Snyder is that Clarkson is more than a scorer. This is one of Snyder’s press conference specialties, where he’ll be asked a question about a player’s best ability and turn it into an answer about how he can develop in one of his weaknesses.
Tonight, Snyder answered a question about Clarkson by saying "You see some things fundamentally in him defensively that are important to him,” Snyder said. “He switched onto big guys rolling in pick and roll, and really worked hard on getting into their legs, getting them off the boards. He’s chasing people in screening actions.”
If Snyder can turn Clarkson into a guy that can consistently do that, it’ll be great for the Jazz. On the other hand, when asked about whether he’s going to change his style of play for a winning team, Clarkson said that he focuses on “playing freely.” So we’ll see what happens.
3. No man’s land and rebounding
This game could have been a blowout, if it weren’t for an ugly first-quarter start that was entirely about the Jazz forcing misses and then not getting the rebound on them.
Responsible party one: Rudy Gobert. He admitted as much after the game, saying “I was too passive. You know, every guy comes in to kick my a--,” Gobert said. “So I’m gonna be ready to respond to that.”
He said the biggest problem that he continued to find himself in no-man’s land: neither really contesting the shot nor making sure to get the board. This is the perfect example.
Yes, at some point, Gobert gets hit in the face, but he doesn’t do a whole lot of anything here. He doesn’t contest, doesn’t block the shot, doesn’t eliminate Zubac from his zone, nothing.
The result was 12 (!) first-quarter offensive rebounds for the Clippers, and 13 second-chance points.
Now the good news is that it turned around: the Clippers only had four offensive rebounds from that point on. It became a priority for Gobert to win his matchup against Zubac, and he did. Gobert’s ability to own the paint from that point forward was the building block for the Jazz’s success.
Generally, Gobert is pretty good on the glass, so I’m not sure this is anything to worry about, much like Clipper fans shouldn’t be too concerned about Kawhi and PG shooting 27% on the night. But I always like it when players identify their own shortcomings and repair them quickly.
