Three thoughts on the Utah Jazz’s 124-115 win over the Houston Rockets from Salt Lake Tribune Jazz beat writer Andy Larsen.
1. Jazz outplay another team’s promising young core
The Rockets' young core is the envy of the rebuilding NBA. Now a few years into their rebuild, they have seven players 23 or younger in their rotation: Jalen Green, Amen Thompson, Alperen Sengun, Jabari Smith Jr., Tari Eason, Cam Whitmore, and tonight, Reed Sheppard. And they stand in fourth place in the Western Conference with room to grow.
The Jazz’s youth looked better than the vaunted Rockets group on this night.
Now, the Rockets will note that they got in very late on a back to back. But the Jazz were playing a back to back too, and were short John Collins, Collin Sexton, and Jordan Clarkson. (The Rockets were missing Fred VanVleet, Steven Adams, and Eason.) In the end, that’s the NBA — teams are rarely 100% physically or mentally.
Keyonte George was the Jazz’s standout player (more on him later), but all of the Jazz’s young players played well. Isaiah Collier had another double-double with assists, clearly running the show with 12 points and 10 assists. Walker Kessler absolutely controlled the paint — the Jazz outscored the Rockets in the key by a 66-36 margin.
Kyle Filipowski played really efficiently, looking like he really belonged on the court with 4-6 shooting. Brice Sensabaugh started the game (and started slowly), but finished with some big plays late. Cody Williams even played well, defending well and adding nine points and six rebounds.
More than any other game this season, this was a bit of a proof of concept for the young core. One successful game does not a future make, but it was the brightest spot in a season of darker ones. The Jazz seemed to show real development tonight, and you can imagine some of these players developing to grow into significant players for the next good Jazz team.
I asked Will Hardy if that was gratifying — after a season of youthful inexperience, to have a game like tonight’s where the Jazz’s belief in their young players looked worthwhile:
“My first reaction is: I told you so, for everybody who talks s--- all year.” Hardy said. These guys are young, and they’re getting better, and they’re working really hard, and I have the utmost belief in them. I’m there every day. You guys are there every day. You see the way these guys conduct themselves, you see the attitude and the spirit of the team every day."
It’s true: the spirit has been high all year long, even if the wins haven’t been. That’s probably a very good sign for a rebuilding team, as are nights like tonight when it all comes together.
2. Keyonte George’s 30-point game
Tonight, Keyonte George had 30 points, eight rebounds, and six assists, on 10-17 shooting. It was probably his best game of the season.
Here are the numbers on George this season, comparing when he starts to when he comes off the bench:
Keyonte George's splits.
Those lines aren’t wildly different, so I think it’s wrong to say the bench has reinvigorated his play totally. But coming off the bench, George’s style of play may be a better fit, because those possessions aren’t coming as frequently from the likes of Walker Kessler, John Collins and Lauri Markkanen, but from more inefficient players.
That being said, there are a few small differences: George is getting to the free-throw line more coming off the bench, garnering slightly more assists and turning over the ball slightly less. Playing opposing benches should make his life somewhat easier, and it seems it has.
It’s funny: as much as I’ve criticized George’s play this season — the defense has been woeful, the shot selection frequently wild, and the turnovers too much — he’s still the Jazz rookie or sophomore who shows the highest flashes. Some of that is the nature of his archetype of player as a volume shooter, but some of that is because there are moments when he does legitimately seem to get it. Moments where he can control the defense, make the right score/pass read, and execute at a high level. Moments where he shows real maturity.
“It’s time to make my presence felt, to understand who I am as a player,” George said. “I know the amount of work that I put in, physically, mentally. I just think, you know, it’s time. It’s time now.”
3. Walker Kessler, lob passer
I love big-to-big passing. Frankly, every basketball nerd does — it’s just fun to see when players do things that aren’t traditionally considered their jobs. (That’s also why football nerds love lineman touchdowns.)
In the last two games, Walker Kessler’s thrown two successful lobs, one to John Collins, one to Lauri Markkanen. Here they both are:
This isn’t like a game changing skill, and I don’t think Kessler is going to develop into a ball-in-hand player.
But this skill is actually quite useful for how the Jazz are being defended right now. A lot of teams are playing this ball denial defense on the Jazz’s best players (Markkanen and Collins), because they’d prefer the ball go anywhere else. They also know that both players are dangerous shooters, and the Jazz love running them off screens or popping out for threes.
How do you respond to that? Backcuts to the rim. The problem is that, when Kessler is the game, whoever is defending him can just come over and stop the lob. So in order for the backcuts to work, it has to be Kessler on the perimeter — and hopefully just actually making the pass.
That he can deliver the pass on time and on target, then, is very good. Hardy said he’s trying to play more 5-out basketball for these spacing reasons, so perhaps we’ll see more of these kind of passes moving forward.
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