Three thoughts on the Utah Jazz’s 128-126 win over the New Orleans Pelicans from Salt Lake Tribune Jazz beat writer Andy Larsen.
1. Winning without trademarks
The Jazz just won a game in which both Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert were well off their best, and their defense was pretty poor. In any of the previous seasons of this era, that’s a surefire recipe for disaster. And instead, the Jazz pulled out a win against a pretty dangerous New Orleans Pelicans team.
The first key? Bojan Bogdanovic, who ended up with the remarkable 35 point, 0 assist, 0 rebound, 0 steal, 0 block line — on 11-21 shooting and adding 10 free throws. The Jazz didn’t have anyone who could do anything like that. I thought this stat from ESPN Stats and Info was intriguing:
His versatility on the offensive end is the real key, because it makes him difficult to guard him really no matter what the defense is doing. In the third quarter, when he went on a 7-0 run by himself, he did it in multiple ways: a straight-line drive taking advantage of a hedging D, a post-up, and then an off-ball screen curling up top for an open 3. If the defense is switching, the Jazz can switch a small onto Bogdanovic, and he can take advantage in the post. If they’re not, Bogdanovic is going to get open pretty frequently on those screens.
But it wasn’t just that. Joe Ingles showed off his versatility too, including his new-found array of pull-up threes. On one remarkable play at the end of the first half, Ingles was trapped in the corner by Brandon Ingram, then spun around Ingram with his right hand and got all the way to the rim, floating a soft layup over Derrick Favors.
Oh, and then there’s Jordan Clarkson’s 16 points, on 6-11 FG. He sandwiched a Jazz 8-0 run with two threes, the kind of threes that definitely no one on the bench would have thought of taking before his arrival. Georges Niang’s quicker trigger helped again with two threes of his own.
And while the Jazz have typically been a high-turnover team, despite all of these possessions tonight, they only had eight turnovers all game long.
Again, it was nothing like the typical Jazz game. But they won again, and they’re now leading the league in close wins. They’re 11-1 in their last 12, and while the schedule hasn’t been tremendous, they’ve now in 5th in the West, just one game out of second place.
2. Transition offense a big key tonight
As noted above, the Jazz had only eight turnovers, but the Pelicans did even better, they gave up only six. So how did the Jazz win fast break points by a margin of 18-8? Running off of misses and makes, of course.
Here’s Tony Bradley sprinting up the court after a miss, beating a very athletic big in Jaxson Hayes down the court and finishing an athletic two.
And this is even better: after a make by the Pelicans, after which Brandon Ingram wanted a foul, the Jazz quickly inbounded the ball, threw it up the court to Royce O’Neale, who was already in position to get the three. He made it.
It’s legitimately surprising how many easy layups and threes you can get this way: by absolutely just sprinting to the rim or to the 3-point arc. Defenses adapting to these situations is so important, but the Pelicans didn’t. On that first play, someone should have recognized the threat of Bradley, on the second, Favors probably should have rotated out to the perimeter, while Ingram could take Gobert.
But even those moves put the defense in compromising positions — then there are mismatches all over the floor, ones the Jazz can take advantage of in the half-court, too.
That the Jazz did this on the third game of a road trip makes it even more impressive. Sprinting while tired is hard, but the Jazz played less tired than their opposition.
3. Making the final play reviewable
The Jazz got lucky.
In case you haven’t seen it, here was the final play of the game.
And the key angle that shows the contact.
Look, Gobert gets Ingram on the arm, while Gobert’s arm isn’t vertical, and it clearly impacts the shot. It’s a foul. There is a faction of Jazz fans that say that because Ingram had his other arm around Gobert late, that it should be a double foul or something, but I don’t see how that arm really impacted the play before Ingram released it. I suspect we’ll see tomorrow’s Last Two Minute report from the NBA acknowledge the above.
But if we’re going to have a review system at all, that’s the exact play that needs to be reviewable. It’s a game-changing call at the last second — in some way, that needs to be looked at.
How do you implement a rule that allows you to review non-calls? You could have the refs err on the side of calling it, so it can be reviewed later, but I think that’s a mistake. In general, we don’t want more whistles in the game, and what if a team is running the other way in transition? So I don’t really like that solution.
How about a delayed review? Let’s say a close no-call happens in the final minute of the game. Let’s give the coach a button to challenge the play. At the next stoppage, or before the next time the challenging team gets the ball back, the officials could stop to look at the play. If the no-call is correct? Whatever happened for the other team stands — points or not. If the no-call is incorrect? Then time is reversed, and free throws are rewarded to the fouled team.
It’s an idea, anyway.
