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Los Angeles • That the Utah Jazz find themselves sitting in eighth place in the Western Conference is mystery to some.
Not to head coach Quin Snyder.
Of course, Utah has benefited from the West's surprisingly mild middle so far this season, but even that might not have mattered for the injury addled Jazz if not for something else.
Make that someone else.
"Come on, guys," Snyder said recently, ticking off the key pieces his team has been without for far too many games. "Sometimes you look at it and go, 'Come on, how are we …?'
"Gordon. He's been the stabilizing force."
The Jazz (17-20) are slowly getting healthy, adding center Rudy Gobert back into the mix this week and hopefully getting power forward Derrick Favors back soon, and they'll be looking to make a push. And while Gordon Hayward, the Jazz's leading scorer, has not been without faults in his sixth NBA season, his coach and teammates know that this year could have gone another way without Hayward's influence.
"He's been great," said Gobert, who missed 18 games with an MCL sprain. "I know it was tough for him, me and Fav going down, [Alec Burks] going down. … He's been a leader and we needed that."
The combination of Gobert's return to play and Hayward's performances in back-to-back wins over the Heat and the Lakers has given the Jazz a little separation with the ninth place Kings and the 10th place Blazers, Utah's next two opponents coincidentally.
Against the Heat on Saturday, Hayward scored a season-high 34 points, connecting on 10 of his 13 shots in the second half for 23 of those points.
"You do have to give him credit, he's a savvy scorer," Miami coach Erik Spoelstra said. "He was doing it off drives, off movement, off pick-and-rolls. We had three or four defenders on him and two or three different looks they were trying to give him, and even at one point just trying to trap and get the ball out of his hands. He's really grown as a player."
Hayward said he was tired, and that was before the late-night flight to California for Sunday's matchup with the Lakers, the Jazz's fourth game in five nights.
But Hayward managed to shoulder the scoring load again for the Jazz. He had a game-high 25 points in a 86-74 win at Staples Center.
"He's big, he's strong," said Lakers rookie Anthony Brown, who was tasked with guarding Utah's leading scorer. "He's good in the mid-range. He's smart. He just knows how to play basketball. It makes it tough on everybody."
The Jazz's offense was stagnant for long stretches on Sunday, but Hayward provided the most consistent punch. And with the Lakers trying to close the gap late in the game, the forward hit back-to-back shots to keep them at bay.
"Just made a play," Hayward said. "That's one of my favorite parts of the game, is quieting the crowd. It was fun."
Hayward, who signed a four-year, $63-million max contract in 2014, still has holes in his game and has drawn criticism for his ball handling late in games. Hayward, so often tasked with running the Jazz's offense or isolating against a defender late in games, has committed eight crunch time turnovers (eighth most in the NBA), according to NBA.com.
"You can always become a better ball handler," Hayward said. "You try to always make sure that it's tight so you're not worried about it at the end of games. You're worried about reading the defense, not whether you can control the ball."
But Hayward's contributions have been greater than his mistakes, in Snyder's estimation.
"Gordon's been a rock," he said recently. "Really, for me, you can't say enough about his play, his leadership, his focus, his defense. … Gordon's been phenomenal."
Snyder remains convinced that Hayward can reach another level as a player still.
And after anchoring the Jazz through an injury plagued month, Hayward found another level this weekend.
"We've been talking about him stepping up and evolving as a player," Snyder said after the win over the Lakers. "I think you saw it tonight, part of that evolution in his game."
Twitter: @tribjazz —
Gordon Hayward update
2015-16 averages
Points • 19.3
Rebounds • 4.9
Assists • 3.1
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Jazz at Blazers
P Wednesday, 8 p.m.
TV • ROOT Sports —
Jazz at Blazers
Wednesday, 8 p.m.
TV • ROOT Sports