Judging by the way the Jazz started Friday night’s game against an opponent that’s basically trying to lose, seeing them locked in a fourth-quarter struggle with Memphis was stunning.
The Jazz somehow managed to make their 107-97 victory at Vivint Smart Home Arena feel like an achievement. The truth is they won because Grizzlies center Marc Gasol went scoreless in the game’s last 16 minutes. The Jazz can take zero credit for that.
Memphis interim head coach J.B. Bickerstaff became the Jazz’s best defender, holding out Gasol after he had scored 28 points on 11-of-12 shooting (including a career-high six 3-pointers) in 23 minutes. Amid repeated questions about Gasol’s absence in the fourth quarter, Bickerstaff said, “We gave our young guys an opportunity to play.”
And gift-wrapped a win that the Jazz accepted.
The Grizzlies (21-55) improved their draft lottery odds and the Jazz (43-33) somewhat solidified their playoff position after recent home losses to Atlanta and a depleted Boston team.
Dante Exum’s breakout game of 21 points was the redeeming aspect of this exercise. Having recently launched his season after recovering from shoulder surgery, Exum played a big role in the Jazz’s decisive 8-0 run, after the Grizzlies were within five points in the last five minutes.
Regardless of how the game unfolded, the Jazz needed this victory. Never mind that the outcome probably shouldn’t have been in question after they started crisply and took a 29-14 lead after the first quarter. The reality is, they were challenged and they survived in the end. If they were willing accomplices to Memphis’ tanking strategy, it’s also true that the Jazz couldn’t take advantage of Atlanta’s struggles or Boston’s personnel shortage.
They’ll get their opponents’ best shots in upcoming games — notably Sunday’s visit to Minnesota — and they better be ready. Jazz coach Quin Snyder succeeded in piecing together lineups Friday without injured guard Ricky Rubio and with center Rudy Gobert’s effectiveness reduced by Gasol’s outside shooting and the Grizzlies’ ultra-small lineup when Gasol exited for good with 4:01 left in the third quarter of a tie game.
Snyder went with an unconventional closing lineup of Derrick Favors, Joe Ingles, Royce O’Neale, Donovan Mitchell and Exum, and it worked. The fourth quarter was plain goofy. Two Grizzlies each missed a pair of free throws, meaning every fan earned a Chick-fil-A sandwich – but only one. “Remember, you already won,” public address announcer Dan Roberts reminded the crowd, taking the fun out of Deyonta Davis’ consecutive misses that followed Marquis Teague’s feat.
So the Jazz defended the free-throw line well in the fourth quarter, as well as the rest of the court. Memphis went 7 of 23 from the field in the final period, after outscoring the Jazz 50-31 in an 18-minute stretch of the middle of the game.
“We had some guys who were disciplined defensively and made it hard,” Snyder said.
Eventually, the Jazz managed to win a home game, which is no guarantee lately. Think about this: The Jazz are 24-5 in their past 29 games. In that stretch of recovery, they’re 13-1 on the road and 11-4 at home. That’s crazy, considering the Jazz’s Deron Williams/Carlos Boozer team lost only four home games in the 2007-08 season.
The NBA’s norms have changed since then, but it remains remarkable that Snyder’s teams are so good on the road and relatively average at home. This season, the Jazz have played their way back to 18-20 on the road and 25-13 at home.
So they’re down to six games left, evenly split between home and road. This season is becoming a gauge of fans’ levels of optimism or paranoia, with opportunities remaining for the Jazz to move up in the standings or fall out of the playoff picture.
Most projections suggest they’ll need four more wins to make the playoffs, with Denver or the Los Angeles Clippers (who come to town Thursday) capable of overtaking them for the last spot.
The Clippers took two victories in Salt Lake City in a 2017 playoff series that the Jazz eventually won. This year to qualify for the playoffs, the Jazz may need to protect their home court — against a team that’s actually trying to win.
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