Three thoughts on the Utah Jazz’s 121-92 win over the Los Angeles Clippers from Salt Lake Tribune Jazz beat writer Andy Larsen.
1. Look at the defense!
The Jazz were awesome defensively tonight. Awesome.
From the very first play of the game, Rudy Gobert was in the Clippers heads. Look what he makes Reggie Jackson do here: pick up the ball super early, but by the time he’s looking to make the pass, Gobert’s already back to prevent the lob.
Watching the video, Gobert deserves the lion’s share of the credit for the defensive performance tonight, he was everywhere. The Clippers had to take a ton of mid-range shots as a result, and they only went 8-33 from the area.
One consistent part of the Jazz’s game plan was to have Gobert shade towards the strong side, dissuading the drive on one-on-one players. Then, the other Jazz helped in the middle and on the outside. Like this:
Clarkson and O’Neale are kind of playing two down low, trying to prevent the pass to Ivica Zubac while also preventing an easy kickout to three. In the end, Zubac knows he can’t just stay in the paint ready to receive that pass forever, so he backs out of the paint right as the pass is actually thrown — but the Jazz’s help made the Clippers indecisive.
I like how Clarkson feels he has the defensive flexibility to go for this steal. This is just active defense, coupled with some poor L.A. spacing. When the Jazz get passive defensively, they can simply be beat by good offensive play — but this is taking control of the situation.
Finally, this steal comes well into garbage time, but take note of the active hands shown by Eric Paschall and Juancho Hernangomez.
Frankly, the Jazz need this kind of activity, communication, and sometimes chaotic play from their usual lineups. That’s always a tough line; you don’t want to help too much, foul too much, or leave your man too frequently. But this version of the Jazz simply showed a brilliant mix of aggression and smarts tonight, and the result was a completely stymied LAC offense that only had 34 points at halftime.
2. Nickeil Alexander-Walker’s passing
I watched a pretty decent amount of Nickeil Alexander-Walker film when the Jazz acquired him, trying to get an understanding of his strengths and weaknesses. But I really didn’t see the terrific passes that he’s had in a Jazz uniform coming — they were overshadowed by the turnovers and bad shots in New Orleans.
In joining the Jazz, though, he’s honestly been a pass-first player, and the results have been extremely positive. He only got 5 assists tonight, but it could have been double-digits with some better 3-point luck. There aren’t many young shooting guards who are looking at the third defender here, realizing that the corner is going to be open.
Again, this is beautiful:
Then, you can combine that with his ability to get by defenders and draw help, you can get a lot of wide open shots.
Finally, loved this pass: NAW is just staring down Rudy Gobert the whole play... and he kicks a perfect one handed pass with his left hand in transition to Clarkson in the corner.
Alexander-Walker shoots with his right hand, but he considers himself ambidextrous. You can see why with passes like that — it’s extremely impressive to throw it that on target from 50 feet away without looking with a non-shooting hand. He makes it look easy and it’s just not.
I don’t know, friends — I don’t see any reason to keep playing Trent Forrest if NAW is going to play like this. You get the good things about Forrest, plus Alexander-Walker’s ability to shoot.
3. Eric Paschall against switching defenses
I’m less worried about the Jazz against switching defenses than maybe ever before. I think Mike Conley’s taken a step back in terms of his ability to attack one-on-one, but Donovan Mitchell and Jordan Clarkson can both take advantage of bigger defenders well.
And in Eric Paschall, the Jazz finally have a guy that can take advantage of the smaller defenders that switch onto him. Here’s a little mini-compilation of his scoring prowess after the Clippers switch: he simply bullied Nicolas Batum, Terence Mann, and Robert Covington.
I’m trying to think if the Jazz have had anyone who can consistently do that against smaller defenders in the Quin Snyder era. Honestly, this is so much more efficient than, say, Derrick Favors or Rudy Gobert postups. Jae Crowder didn’t have this drive game or finishing ability at the rim, Georges Niang wasn’t bullying anyone. Bojan Bogdanovic can, I suppose, but he’s just a little bit slower and the contact affects him a bit more. Paschall is just going through these guys.
Of course, then here’s a real question: how flexible will Snyder be in the playoffs? Will Paschall play? I think it depends on how the game is going: if the Jazz are scoring enough without Paschall, he doesn’t bring enough in the rebounding, passing, or interior defense aspects of the game to play. But if they need the points? I think he’ll play Paschall, or at least, he should.
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