Three thoughts on the Utah Jazz’s 124-117 win over the Oklahoma City Thunder from Salt Lake Tribune Jazz beat writer Andy Larsen.
1. Dominating inside the paint
For the third straight game against the Jazz, Oklahoma City was on fire from deep. In their first matchup, they shot 44% from three; in the second game, 47%. Tuesday, OKC hit a remarkable 51.4%.
That’s going to win a lot of games, and it was decisive in the first two matchups. But the Jazz so thoroughly dominated inside the paint in this matchup that they got the win anyway. Overall, the Jazz outscored the Thunder 60-36 in that painted range Tuesday; the Jazz also won the rebounding battle 48-32 and even shot more free-throws.
How? First: the tremendous partnership of Walker Kessler and Kris Dunn. We all know that Kessler is one of the league’s best rim protectors, but both players added three blocks. The Jazz were monstrously better with both players in the game: they allowed a 62 defensive rating in the 12 minutes they were in together. 62! To the league’s fifth-best offense, to boot.
Stacking a terrific perimeter defender like Dunn with a terrific paint defender like Kessler has some huge benefits. Take a play like this, where Kessler’s size and arms forces the lanky Chet Holmgren to make an extra move ... and Dunn can get a steal.
Second, the zone defense worked incredibly well Tuesday. Now, your first thought when a team is hitting 52% of threes isn’t to run more zone... but that’s exactly what the Jazz did, and it worked. OKC had an offensive rating of 129 when the Jazz played man, and a 53 DRtg when the Jazz played zone.
Look at how the paint collapses on this drive:
This was the game plan, and it worked. Yes, there’s a kickout option here, but after the spin on the drive and the dropoff pass, that’s a really unlikely pass.
Obviously, the default man defense has to improve with the other players on the roster, but these two points are defensive bedrocks that they can use moving forward, and you won’t typically see opponents hit more than half their threes. A great night overall.
2. Kris Dunn!
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