This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Last summer, after he had agreed to a $150-million contract with the Atlanta Hawks, Dwight Howard played a joke on his mother. The Atlanta native told his mom that he was moving to Utah. She cried.
Maybe it wouldn't have been so bad after all.
"I don't know," Jazz center Rudy Gobert said with a smirk after beating the Hawks 95-68 on Friday night. "Maybe she cried because she was happy."
Mrs. Howard, however, certainly wouldn't have been pleased with how Gobert treated her son on the basketball court. The 7-footer blocked five shots and held Howard to just four points on the night, to highlight Utah's best defensive performance of the young season.
"You got to come out and do what you've got to do," said Gobert, who had 10 points and 10 rebounds for his seventh double-double of the year. "… When you've got a guy who's been an All-Star many times, if you're not ready to play he can dominate you. You've got to be ready every second."
The Jazz (9-8) looked ready on Friday. The Hawks came to Salt Lake City as the top defensive team in the NBA, but they ran into a Jazz team that would love to claim that crown one day.
Utah held the Hawks to 31-percent shooting for the game and held them to just 11 points in the second quarter, the lowest for any Jazz opponent this season.
When the Jazz offense went cold in the third quarter and Utah mustered just 13 points, the defense was stubborn enough to hold Atlanta to 14.
"Guys were focused on it," Jazz coach Quin Snyder said. "It's something that we want to be. We want to be a really good defensive team, and we knew we were playing against the best defensive team in the league. We were focused on being disciplined, and that's the main thing."
The Jazz recorded nine steals. They also blocked nine shots, as Gobert and company dominated under the basket. The Hawks shot just 32 percent (14 of 43) in the paint.
"That's probably the worst layup display we've had for a while," said Atlanta forward Paul Millsap, who scored 11 points against his former team. "Good shot blockers do that. [Gobert] is a good shot blocker. You can give him some credit on that. I still give us a little credit for missing them."
Jazz forward Gordon Hayward came out hot and knocked down his first six shots of the game. The best part of Hayward's 24-point performance?
"The best thing that Gordon did tonight was defend," Snyder said. "Not even close."
Hayward, meanwhile, credited Gobert's play versus Howard and Rodney Hood's defense on Hawks shooter Kyle Korver (three points on 1-of-3 shooting) as keys to the win.
"We were locked on Kyle," Hayward said. "The job that Rodney did tonight on him was huge. … He's a hot guy who can really score points in bunches, and Rodney shut him down."
Defense is why Snyder said he played backup point guard Shelvin Mack, who had four steals in 18 minutes, giving Dante Exum just five minutes of garbage time.
"We're going to play the guys that play defense," the coach said.
Defense is how the Jazz sparked a 19-2 run in the fourth quarter, capped by back-to-back steals and buckets from Hayward and George Hill to push their lead as high as 31.
"We're going to defend and hopefully our defense leads to offense," said Hill, who scored 23 points and grabbed five rebounds in his second game back from injury. "Today was just a prime example of all five guys locked in together, helping each other."
Twitter: @aaronfalk