Three thoughts on the Utah Jazz’s 110-105 win over the Detroit Pistons from Salt Lake Tribune Jazz beat writer Andy Larsen.
1. Donovan Mitchell figures it out
My favorite part of the Donovan Mitchell experience is just how frequently you can see him figure something out during the course of a game, and tonight was a very good example.
Mitchell scored just two points in the first half, and then began the third quarter with an awful stretch of two consecutive turnovers and an ugly brick.
Quin Snyder pulled Mitchell aside, and began to talk to him. After the game, this is what Snyder said he told Mitchell:
“You don’t have to wait until the end of the game to learn. Keep at it, keep reading, and think about what’s happening out there," Snyder said. “I just felt like he needed a step back, and sit for a second and watch. It gives you a little more clarity and can strengthen your resolve, and that’s what he had.”
Mitchell came back in two minutes later. He wasn’t brilliant right away, forcing a couple of shots that he probably shouldn’t have. But you could see that he was starting to understand what the Pistons were doing: keeping a quick guard with him, helping to him from elsewhere on the court, and preventing him from getting all the way to the rim.
So Mitchell started to realize the importance of getting a solid screen. Rather than trying to beat his man off the dribble, he used Rudy Gobert and Derrick Favors to get his man off of him, then attacked.
When someone from the perimeter helped out too much, Mitchell found the open man.
After the Pistons started to just go under the screens, Mitchell did a much better job of pulling up while maintaining his sense of control, as he did on the two most important shots of the game.
After the last one, Mitchell could be seen talking to, well, someone, saying “You did this. It’s your fault.”
Whether if it’s directed at a boisterous fan or a trash-talking opponent, Mitchell finding some edge is nice to see, too.
“For us to be a really good team, he has to be a really good player,” Kyle Korver said. And in the second half, Mitchell was.
“I don’t know who that was in the first half. It was an embarrassment to me and my teammates," Mitchell said. My teammates just have my back, they told me to just keep fighting through.”
2. Poor start, again
Once again, the Jazz got out to an ugly start in this game, getting down to as much as a 31-13 deficit to enter the second quarter. Some of that, admittedly, was because Rudy Gobert found himself in foul trouble, but it’s not as if the Jazz were setting the world on fire when Gobert was on the court, either.
As usual during any rough stretch, shotmaking was somewhat to blame: the Jazz got open shots early, albeit from Ricky Rubio and Derrick Favors, and just missed them. Meanwhile, Reggie Bullock hit his first four 3-pointers of the game.
But hey, he’s an NBA player, and is capable of hitting open jump shots. Look at what Joe Ingles is doing on this play... I’d describe it as roughly nothing. I understand that he wants to be ready to help, but, well, he’s not doing much there, either.
Or on this one, Blake Griffin just runs pick and pop, and Favors gives him just a ton of airspace to catch-and-shoot, even more clearly visible thanks to the unusual camera angle.
I get what the Jazz are thinking here: the Pistons ranked 28th coming into the game in 3-point shooting percentage. But they do take the 14th-most per game, and Griffin, especially, loves that shot at this point of his career. Allowing uncontested jumpers is a bad strategy.
The Jazz did begin to figure it out, thanks to more inspired and physical play from Dante Exum and Thabo Sefolosha — both of who couldn’t play in the second half due to an ankle sprain and a hamstring injury, respectively. But Ideally, you don’t get out to 18-point first-quarter deficits on the road against sub .500 teams.
3. How the Jazz forced turnovers
Maybe the biggest impetus for the Jazz’s comeback late was their ability to force turnovers. They ended up getting 18 Detroit turnovers on the night, which led to 25 Jazz points. All but four of those turnovers were in the second half.
After watching those turnovers, I have to give a lot of credit to Jae Crowder. Crowder did a very nice job of making the Pistons' life difficult by either keeping his hands active in pick and roll plays, like in this instance:
Or he could sneak up on the Pistons and forcing steals by leaving his man, even when his man was Blake Griffin.
Or he could do both: aggressively attack the pick and roll, then when Griffin did end up getting the ball anyway, go back and help strip the ball, which ended up becoming a turnover.
The Pistons' late comeback came once they figured out essentially to stop running plays, to just let Griffin play bully-ball against Crowder. So that’s when Snyder put Favors in on defense, and then Griffin ran Favors through a Andre Drummond screen and found space for an open corner three. Griffin is still just a really good player, but the Jazz, and especially Crowder, were able to capitalize on the mistakes of his teammates.
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