Three thoughts on the Utah Jazz’s 118-108 win over the Denver Nuggets from Salt Lake Tribune beat writer Andy Larsen.
1. Donovan Mitchell in control with 46 points
There are a lot of possible “best” Donovan Mitchell games, but this one stands up with the rest of them. There’s the obvious point that he tied his career high in points, so of course it should, but I thought he also did a very nice job of attacking while being in the flow of the offense.
At no point did he say “oh, I’m hot, I should be taking this shot right now.” Instead, he just consistently made the right reads and dramatically took advantage of them.
That highlight video is really impressive. Take a look at 2:12, where Mitchell gets an early screen from Rudy Gobert, and seems to skitter across the court to put himself in position for an easy layup. It’s not that Mitchell’s taking big strides; instead, a lot of very effective small ones get him to where he needs to go. Just like a spider.
Or watch how he sets his opponent up for the screen at 3:02. That’s just a wide-open shot, set up by the quick move to the right, then immediate crossover to the left into the screen.
Or at 3:22, look at the dribble move that is so convincing it gets Torrey Craig to jump high up in the air, even while Mitchell can continue his dribble.
Then there was the 16 free-throw attempts, which were a career-high for Mitchell. Some of that was poor Denver defense, but to be honest, there were some that he knew how to draw: by running into bodies that weren’t in legal guarding position, or drawing a defender up into the air and drawing contact. That, again, shows progress.
Mitchell was motivated to come out with a good game tonight, he said, in part due to Quin Snyder’s coaching. Snyder was furious at his team for playing poorly against the Lakers, especially his two stars. They were coached, they played well on Tuesday, and got the win.
2. Rudy Gobert’s standout contributions
The other star, obviously, is Gobert. He was phenomenal tonight, including doing some things that showed his level of confidence — and ability — entering the playoffs.
This offensive move is brilliant. 98 percent of the time, Gobert will look to his right and hand off this ball, keeping the Jazz’s play going. But he knew that he had a matchup advantage with Paul Millsap, and so he used the misdirection to get all the way to the rim for an and-one. It’s a nice crossover, too. (By the way, look how excited Mitchell is for his teammate here.)
And his blocks tonight were sensational. You can tell Nikola Jokic isn’t used to getting his fadeaway shot blocked, but it was here.
And then to time the jump correctly to block a hook shot from a 7-footer in Mason Plumlee? Blocking any kind of hook shot is nearly impossible unless you’re coming from behind to surprise the shooter, but to get a hand on this? It’s so impressive.
Gobert doesn’t deserve sole credit for Jokic’s ugly 2-point, 5-rebound, 2-assist game, probably his worst of the season. Derrick Favors was also excellent in his comeback game, and I thought about dedicating the second Triple Team point to him instead. But Gobert’s fourth-quarter performance turned a close game into a blowout late.
3. The other games
I don’t know how to explain the string of rotten luck the Jazz got tonight. Are there basketball gods? If so, it would seem the Jazz disappointed them. (On the other hand, the two players above somehow found their way to the Jazz. Maybe the draft basketball gods are different than the getting-favorable-results basketball gods?)
Coming into tonight, the Jazz wanted to play the Portland Trail Blazers, who are missing Jusuf Nurkic, their third-best player. They did not want to play the Houston Rockets, who beat them in five games last season. A Houston win over Oklahoma City or a Lakers win over the Blazers would have sealed the deal.
But no. Sure, the Rockets had a 14-point lead in the 4th quarter, but they immediately gave up a 15-0 run to the Thunder. Sure, they had a four point lead and the ball with 30 seconds to go. Somehow, they lost anyway, thanks to a Paul George three with 1 second left and some iffy play before that. Look at this win probability chart from Inpredictable.
(Inpredictable.com)
Sigh. We move on to the Lakers/Blazers game. Sure, a Lakers win was improbable, but again, the team the Jazz were rooting for had a 2-point lead with 40 seconds left. And then the Blazers won on a Mo Harkless game winning three after a Lakers turnover. Harkless, a 27% 3-point shooter, scored the Blazers’ final 12 points.
I’m going to be honest with you guys: I continue to prefer that the Jazz play the Blazers in the first round. My preferences on this matter are largely due to my preference to be in Portland for a while over the fourth-largest city in America, Houston. Portland is nice. It has the Portland Japanese Garden, one of the most serene places I’ve ever been. It has Powell’s Books, a lovely bookstore that is an entire city block large. It has delicious Voodoo Doughnuts, fantastic soul food at Screen Door, and great tacos at Por Que No Tacos, and is generally one of my most-enjoyed stops on the road circuit.
Meanwhile, I’m still looking for redeeming factors for Houston. It will be warmer, sure, but the forecast predicts thunderstorms. And the urban sprawl of Houston — Houston has jurisdiction over a larger area than Delaware — and its lack of zoning laws means that the city itself doesn’t have a very good downtown.
In college, I wrote a final term paper about Houston for a class I took from Westminster on the structure of cities. Here’s a fun fact I found in my research: As of 2010, “According to the Houston Chronicle, there (were) approximately 550 massage parlors that have operated illegally in the city of Houston within the last two years. That means there (were) 2.61 of these establishments per 10,000 residents, but only 1.88 grocery stores per 10,000 residents within city boundaries.”
Anyway, I’m sure these last two paragraphs will draw scorn from Houstonians, so I’m asking you, Houston: sell me on your city. I want to enjoy my time there.
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