The Weekly Run is The Salt Lake Tribune’s weekly newsletter on all things Utah Jazz. Subscribe here.
After watching Rudy Gobert rack up 23 points, 22 rebounds, and four blocks in the Jazz’s 129-109 win over the Clippers back on Jan. 16, L.A. coach Doc Rivers clearly had bad memories of the big man still on his mind in Wednesday morning’s shootaround at Vivint Smart Home Arena before the teams’ rematch later that evening.
Asked what improvements he’s seen Gobert make from his Defensive Player of the Year campaign a season ago to now, Rivers was blunt: “I don’t think he needs to.
“He’s like a one-man wrecking crew in a lot of ways. He’s difficult. Our last game, I don’t know if he had a better game than that. I thought he completely dominated the game,” Rivers added. “Sometimes it doesn’t show up in numbers — I think most of his stuff doesn’t show up in numbers. You can clearly see the blocks, but you can’t see the change of thought; there’s no stat for that. There should be a stat — a Rudy stat — where you can see a guy decide not to go in the paint anymore. I mean, we did it over and over again.”
Doc also said that, even after the Jazz got off to a poor start this season, he never had any doubt the team would find its way. He credited Donovan Mitchell, Joe Ingles, and Ricky Rubio for being big components of that.
“You knew they would get it back, you knew sometime they would get a rhythm,” he said. “I think Donovan has really come on, and Joe and Rubio, to me, those guys are their three engines. They just play a great brand of team ball. They’re fun to watch.”
(Speaking of which, for some nothing-to-do-with anything fun-to-watch Jazz outtakes from the past week, stick around til the end.)
Talking the talk …
The Weekly Run isn’t just a newsletter — it’s also a podcast, in case you didn’t know! And it just so happens that myself and Andy B. Larsen, my fellow Trib writer covering the Jazz, have a new pod up. We had a lot of topics this week, starting with, “Do we throw in the towel on Grayson Allen after he struggled in a G League game?” and ending with, “Are the Jazz un-clutch after dropping to 0-5 this season in games decided by 3 or fewer points?” Everything in between is great, too, if we do say so ourselves! Give it a listen.
In case you missed it
As the Jazz have played only two games since returning from the All-Star break, you might think there isn’t a ton to discuss. But you’d be wrong.
For instance, after committing 25 turnovers in a double-overtime loss to the Thunder, but only seven in a win against the Mavericks, we asked, is it really that simple? Are the team’s turnover issues having that much of an impact? Turns out, the answer is nope.
And hey — the Jazz scored 129 in regulation (and 147 total) vs. OKC, and 125 more vs. Dallas. You know what a big component of that is? After years of ranking dead-last in pace, Utah is up to 14th this season.
You want more than just stats-and-trends analyses? You want some details on some of the individual players? We had those, too. Like, say, teammates praising Raul Neto for making the most of his limited minutes. And Joe Ingles being the NBA’s current foremost ironman. There’s an update, too, on Dante Exum’s injury status.
Some other people’s stuff
Like I’ve said before, while Andy and I pride ourselves on providing you with the best Jazz coverage anywhere, we know you all are both voracious and insatiable about this team. We also know there are other people out there with interesting things to say about the Jazz. So we feel OK letting you know about it. Here’s a sampling of the latest:
• Deseret News columnist Brad Rock dives into the team’s enduring popularity around the state, as evidenced by some promising TV ratings.
• In a guest article for KSL.com, Ben Anderson notes that in their last nine games against teams over .500, the Jazz have gone just 2-7.
• Tony Jones of The Athletic wrote that while Rudy and Donovan are the unquestioned stars, the Jazz’s ceiling will ultimately be determined by the play of Ricky Rubio.
• Royce Young of ESPN wrote not exactly about the Jazz, but rather about Paul George’s exploits against the Jazz. So if you’re feeling masochistic, have a read, I guess?
• Rubio’s a bit of a lightning road among Jazz fans. The D-News’ Eric Woodyard wrote about how amid all the drama, the point guard is keeping himself a part of the community.
Up next
As I mentioned before, the Jazz and the Clippers are playing Wednesday night at Vivint Smart Home Arena. After that, the Jazz get yet another back-to-back, as they’ll be in Denver on Thursday night for a TNT-broadcast tilt against the Nuggets, who are presently second in the West. They’ll be back in SLC for yet another big game as MVP candidate Giannis Antetokoumpo and the East-leading Bucks come to visit. This wraps pretty much the last difficult bit of the schedule before things get theoretically easier down the stretch.
A bonus for making it this far: Some Jazz behind the scenes
In the lead-up to the trade deadline, there was a lot of discussion amongst Jazz fans about the risk/reward involved in upgrading the overall talent level of the team at the potential expense of upsetting the chemistry. Whether the Jazz have enough of the former is a question that will be answered over the remainder of the regular season and the playoffs. Meanwhile, there’s zero question the Jazz have enough of the latter.
Covering the team this year has afforded me the opportunity to catch a ton of little behind-the-scenes moments in locker rooms, at shootarounds, et cetera — interactions and occurrences that themselves don’t really warrant any kind of bigger-picture treatment, but which still tell a compelling story.
After Saturday’s win over the Mavericks, as Ricky was discussing his bounce-back performance when Donovan — whose locker is right next to his — came right up behind his backcourt-mate and made it a point to see if he could distract him from his media session, violating the normal boundaries of “personal space” while demonstrably applying some body lotion. (FWIW, it was funnier than the description sounds.)
The previous day, at shootaround in Oklahoma City, Donovan’s own media session was interrupted — ironically, right as he was discussing the camaraderie of this group — when he noticed buddy Royce O’Neale lurking among the reporters, appearing to film his comments with his phone:
Mitchell: Oh, I didn’t even peep you were right there.
O’Neale: You on live, bro! Just keep going.
Mitchell: Turn me off live, bro!
O’Neale: Just keep going! It’s for the Jazz.
Mitchell: Oh, for the Utah Jazz Live?
O’Neale: Yeah.
Mitchell: Is it really?
O’Neale: No.
And laughter all around.
Which isn’t to say there aren’t issues and there aren’t arguments and there aren’t closed-door dramas that reporters aren’t privy to. But there have been enough of the opposite types of moments observed to come away with the impression that these guys really like each other. And that counts for something, as franchises with dysfunctional rosters can attest.
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