Three thoughts on the Utah Jazz’s 106-88 loss to the San Antonio Spurs from Salt Lake Tribune Jazz beat writer Andy Larsen.
1. Wembanyama puts up the 23rd 5x5 game in NBA history
Victor Wembanyama showed the Jazz fans in attendance tonight why the team is tanking this year — there’s really no other way to get players that good, that quickly.
Wembanyama‘s 25-point, nine-rebound, seven-assist, five-steal, five-block performance was just the 23rd 5x5 game in NBA history, with the caveat that they didn‘t track those categories before 51 years ago. Still: 23 of those in 50 years show it’s a pretty rare feat. Only three players in history have had more than one — Hakeem Olajuwon had six, and the Jazz’s Andrei Kirilenko had three. But Wembanyama had two in just 76 career games.
But to me, the most telling part of his game was the +43 on the box score, in just an 18-point Spurs victory. That stood out to Walker Kessler too, who took a minute to look at the box score after his post-game news conference, pointing out that number specifically.
Keyonte George called Wembanyama an “alien.”
And Wemby played ... well? Probably ... pretty good? He missed a lot of threes, and even a dunk. He had a few turnovers. He didn‘t get some blocks I thought he could have gotten on a different day. He looked a little lurpy in committing some fouls. I don’t think he was really making any effort to chase the 5x5. I’ve honestly seen him be more mobile and more impactful than he was tonight, albeit with inferior box score stats.
It‘s interesting because he hasn‘t started the season well overall, either. Against Oklahoma City and Chet Holmgren, he was pretty easily bested, struggling to beat the 5-man defense of the Thunder. He‘s taken a lot of threes — I like threes, but making them at 19% is probably the worst part of his game. And in other areas, he just hasn’t taken the jump from last year that many observers expected.
Utah‘s going to be a get-right night for a lot of stars this year, I‘m afraid. Wemby’s definitely a star, and made history tonight.
2. Just a ridiculous number of turnovers
You know, ideally, you don’t have 26 turnovers in a game.
Even worse was how those turnovers happened. The Spurs had nine steals in the third quarter, the most by any team in a quarter since 1996, the first year for which we have consistent, searchable play-by-play data, per Jazz radio voice David Locke. That’s more history!
Will Hardy was pretty pointed in his postgame remarks: he feels like his players aren‘t valuing possession of the ball enough. Heck, he thinks they’re not valuing the opportunity to play in the NBA enough.
“This is not guaranteed. Being in the NBA is not guaranteed. There’s a lot of players who have established themselves, but they’ve had to fight to do so. You have to scratch and claw and battle to be an NBA player for a long time. I think the average NBA career is like under four years or something, and that’s because the league will just churn players in and out,” he said. “And right now, I just don’t feel that desperation. I don’t feel that hunger on every play.”
It‘s hard to argue. There is a very real chance that these players that the Jazz have aren‘t in the NBA in four years. They are, frankly, on the fringes. They have shown that with their play. So they can’t just carelessly make passes like this:
Or dribble at Wembanyama, then jog back on defense like this:
Not if they want to be NBA players in four years.
There‘s not a single young Jazz player who should feel assured in an NBA spot (with the possible exception of Walker Kessler, who at least is fighting for a starting role). It would be nice if any of them played like their job was on the line.
3. First Kyle Filipowski start
Kyle Filipowski has gone from DNP-CDs to starting basketball games in the course of about three days.
“It was a very challenging time, going from Duke and being probably the main guy there to not playing really much at all here,” Filipowski said. But he‘s turned it around in a hurry, and is probably the Jazz’s rookie or second-year player playing best right now.
We knew Filipowski could dribble, create, and even shoot. But what I‘ve been impressed with at in his limited NBA minutes so far is his physicality: he‘s actually using his size and strength to win plays. There were a few examples of that in Thursday’s game, including a telling layup against Zach Collins.
Collins is an NBA vet — not the strongest guy in the world, but just as big and as tall as Filipowski. But Filipowski creates space on Collins not once but twice on this drive, moving through the paint.
We haven‘t yet seen that play out on the defensive end, which I think is the next step for him. It’s a big one. But he looks more ready to deal with NBA length and athleticism on offense than any other young Jazz player.
Editor’s note • This story is available to Salt Lake Tribune subscribers only. Thank you for supporting local journalism.
