Oklahoma City • The multiple film sessions were grueling for Ricky Rubio. They were also enlightening.
They showed what the Utah Jazz point guard did wrong in a Game 1 Western Conference first-round loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder. There were missed shots. More importantly, there were hunted shots, turnovers, bad decisions and bad pick-and-roll reads.
Rubio knew he had to get better. That’s what made his performance in Wednesday night’s Game 2 so important for the Jazz.
In a 102-95 victory over OKC at Chesapeake Energy Arena, Rubio proved integral to a second-half rally. He scored 22 points, while handing out nine assists and grabbing seven rebounds.
“I was looking for my shot too much,” Rubio said. “In Game 1, I was over-aggressive. I didn’t look to get my teammates involved. Tonight, I did a better job of looking for my teammates and I took shots when they were open. I had to remember that we play as a team, and that was our strength.”
Derrick Favors was a rock in the post with 20 points and 16 rebounds. Donovan Mitchell stole the show with 28 points, 20 of that in the second half. But it was Rubio’s performance that took the Jazz to a level they didn’t reach in Sunday’s Game 1.
Defensively, he was a key figure in OKC star Russell Westbrook going 7 of 19 from the field. Westbrook scored 19 points, handed out 13 assists and grabbed nine rebounds. But he didn’t take the game over, and that was largely because of Rubio.
And with Rubio playing a more controlled game, the Jazz offense didn’t sputter as it did in Game 1. The looks at the basket were cleaner, the pace was better and there weren’t as many lulls as there were on Sunday.
Rubio wasn’t perfect. He incurred an eight-second backcourt violation in the third quarter that jump-started a 19-0 Thunder run. He shot 6 of 16 from the field. But, he was so much better than he was on Sunday, and the Jazz offense throughout a slower-paced game reflected that.
Most importantly, Rubio went 5 of 8 from 3-point range, making the Thunder pay for abandoning him on the perimeter with hopes of sending extra help to defending Mitchell. His biggest shot of the game supplied Utah with an 85-80 advantage midway through the fourth quarter, and the Jazz never trailed again.
“Ricky is really, really competitive,” Utah coach Quin Snyder said. “I think in the first game, he didn’t feel like he played as well as he can. But tonight, he did a great job, especially early in the game, finding people and making the reads we didn’t make in the first game. When he does that, he starts a chain on our offense that we need. We’re going to need to have more of it. We have to move the ball and guys are going to have to drive it and kick it for us to generate shots. They have to be committed to that.”
Follow @Tjonessltrib