Jae Crowder thought the Jazz got punked in Game 1.
The feeling stuck with the small forward. In the series opener against the Oklahoma City Thunder, OKC bumped and shoved and pushed the Jazz around. They took Utah out of its offense. They eventually took control in the fourth quarter and pulled away.
More than X’s and O’s and making shots, Crowder and the Jazz vowed to get back into the series with toughness. In winning three consecutive games after Monday night’s 113-96 Game 4 victory, the Jazz pushed back when they have been pushed. They’ve willingly dived for loose balls. They’ve returned trash talk. They’ve taken the challenge from an OKC team that’s aggressive and athletic, a team that’s got a little bully in them.
Crowder’s been in the middle of that. He was ejected from Game 4 for a flagrant foul 2 in a scrum that included Russell Westbrook and Steven Adams. He was instrumental in helping the Jazz stand up to a Thunder team intent to set a physical tone.
“At the end of the day, what you do on the court, you get respect for,” Crowder said. “We wanted to make it tough on our opponent and set the tone. We wanted to send the message that it was going to be a tough and physical series.”
Crowder says that’s why he found himself in foul trouble during Game 2, when he came off the bench and quickly picked up three whistles. His ability to bring a toughness and attitude to the Jazz during this series has allowed Utah to control two of the three games.
The Jazz have also benefitted from Crowder’s ability to play in a variety of lineups. During the first four games, he has guarded everyone from Carmelo Anthony to Russell Westbrook. He helped hold Anthony to 5-of-18 shooting from the field. He grabbed seven rebounds, while handing out three assists and swiping three steals.
When the Jazz have needed to go small, Crowder has played a lot at the power forward spot. When they’ve gone big to match OKC, Crowder has played on the wings. He and rookie Royce O’Neale have been tasked with guarding Anthony and Paul George for large stretches. The emergence of the two — around the February trade deadline — has given the Jazz a toughness defensively on the perimeter, with Rudy Gobert manning the middle.
“He’s been very important to us,” Jazz rookie Donovan Mitchell said. “Having that ability to put him on so many different players and have him in different lineups is important. He’s a guy that goes out there and plays hard. He fights and he scraps. That helps all of us a lot.
If Crowder can find his shot again, that would help the Jazz as well. It’s been the thing missing from his arsenal during the postseason. Heading into Monday night, Crowder shot 27 percent from the field and just 20 percent from 3-point range. And he held true to that, shooting 2-of-10 from the field in Game 4.
For the Jazz, making threes has been a team-wide issue, although they were better in Game 3. But, Crowder offensively adds value for his ability to stretch the floor. He knows that he needs to figure that out, if the Jazz want to win the series.
“I knew tonight was going to be physical,” Crowder said. “I think the ref did a good job of keeping everything together, but I didn’t think I deserved the flagrant. I was trying to get out of the scrum. That’s all it was.”
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