Three thoughts on the Utah Jazz’s 111-85 win over the Golden State Warriors from Salt Lake Tribune Jazz beat writer Andy Larsen.
1. Holy cow, defense without Rudy!
That’s probably the best defensive performance I’ve seen this iteration of the Jazz have with Rudy Gobert off the floor.
On-ball on the perimeter, they competed. Trent Forrest was the standout defender here, but Mike Conley played his heart out, and Donovan Mitchell really used all of his effort, too. This is good pursuit!
Off-ball, they really rotated, helped each other when necessary, and recovered at the rim. This is a great example: Hassan Whiteside has to guard Steph Curry to prevent the shot, allowing a free path to the rim for Juan Toscano-Anderson. But Jordan Clarkson rotates fast enough to make Toscano dribble once, and Whiteside gets all the way down to the paint to get the block.
It’s multiple defensive efforts, which we don’t always see from Whiteside... but we certainly did tonight. The Jazz had a 69 defensive rating with Whiteside on the floor tonight, an insanely good performance.
Udoka Azubuike could do the same thing. He’s up in pick and roll here too, but cuts off the pocket pass, gets in front of Looney, and forces the miss. Furthermore, I love how many Jazz players are down low for the rebound — and I love that ‘Dok fights for it and gets it.
This is a truly terrific closeout from Eric Paschall: takes away the airspace, forces Wiggins to drive, stays with him throughout — and then Whiteside’s in position to get the final contest.
It was a high-effort performance, but just as importantly, it was a high-cohesion performance. The Jazz were aggressive in defending, leaving open spots — but then they helped each other out on the back end.
This is an extremely good sign. Remember the last time Rudy Gobert missed action at the beginning of January due to COVID, and the team was a tire fire defensively — and Gobert noted it in his first press conference back? Now, he’s slated to come back in the next couple of games, and he’ll be much, much happier. If they can replicate this performance night in and night out, and especially against teams with more shooters in the lineup, they’ll set themselves up well for the playoffs.
2. Talking Trent
Forrest has just been incredibly good recently.
At the beginning of the season, Forrest minutes were a distinct liability, only created to give Mike Conley more of a rest. Now, though? He’s a legitimate asset.
I mean, look how silly Forrest makes Jordan Poole look on this play. Forrest is zero threat to pull up, Poole knows it and backs way off... and still just gets utterly beaten.
The Jazz have shifted a great number of possessions from the bench from Jordan Clarkson plays to Forrest plays, and he’s making it look like a brilliant decision. Like, this late shot clock attempt is always going to Clarkson a month ago... now, Forrest is getting it, and executing. Puts his defender in jail, finds his big man for the easy finish. It’s so good.
And then he’s has ratcheted up the defense, being the Jazz’s best defender on Curry tonight.
This is an incredible turnaround. There were stretches this season where Forrest was legitimately killing the Jazz — a -11 stretch against the Celtics in 3 minutes stands out. But his ability to be this aggressive and this much of a scorer, this much of an impact defender, suggests that maybe, the Jazz should find some minutes for the guy, at least when he’s playing this well.
I’m still a little skeptical of Forrest in the playoffs, just because he still can’t shoot. In the playoffs, his minutes will be next to better players for more of the game, and it may just make sense to put spacing around Mitchell and Bogdanovic and Gobert and so on. But this has already been a heck of a career for an undrafted player, and it’s clearly going to continue.
3. What Donovan and Quin said about the trade
Hey, there was a Jazz trade today! Here’s the main trade story. And here’s my early thoughts on the deal in the Tribune trade deadline live blog. I do plan on doing a more fully-fleshed writeup and analysis of the full deadline moves on Friday, once we’re able to see the full picture, talk to the front office, and have the time to watch more video.
In this space, I just want to zoom in on Mitchell and Snyder’s reactions to the deal. Both, of course, spent most of the time talking about Joe Ingles’ Jazz tenure, and what he meant to them personally and professionally. Ingles’ departure, even if only contractual, still feels like the end of an era for those guys — it was emotional.
But I thought their descriptions of Nickeil Alexander-Walker’s game was interesting:
“His length and his ability to make a shot, there’s a skill-set there, he has some tools,” Snyder said. “If he can come in and have an impact defensively, that’s something that we’re constantly telling our whole team. He does have the length and the size to be a really committed defender.”
Meanwhile, Mitchell said: “He’s a guy that can really go get it on offense, a good defender, and can definitely get better. He’s young, so there’s time to grow and time to learn.”
That’s relatively generic praise, but the thing that did stand out to me was that both men complemented what they think NAW can be defensively. He shows spurts of that sometimes, but truly wasn’t impactful for New Orleans on that end of the floor. Snyder didn’t really mention NAW’s drive game, but instead his ability to shoot, so maybe that hints at as a complementary offensive role.
Alexander-Walker did come to the Jazz’s bench in the middle of the game, and all internal word is that they expect him to be a piece of the Jazz’s rotation right away; he’s expected to play on Friday against Orlando. We’ll see how consistently he gets minutes, with how good Forrest has been, and what happens tomorrow. He’ll need to improve his offensive game, but if he can, he could be a good young addition — albeit probably not the defensive upgrade many Jazz fans envisioned.
