Billy Donovan raced to the middle of the court in the old Salt Palace, then turned around to discover John Stockton and Karl Malone laughing at him.
As a rookie in 1987, in the first of his two unsuccessful attempts to make the Jazz roster, Donovan was a victim of the trick orchestrated by coach Frank Layden, with Stockton and Malone as co-conspirators. They told Donovan and Bart Kofoed to show more intensity, starting with energetically leading the team out of the tunnel to warm up for the first home preseason game. And then they stayed behind, as the rookies charged onto the court alone.
Three decades later, the Jazz keep pranking Donovan. With a 113-96 victory Monday night in Game 4 of a first-round playoff series, the Jazz have taken a 3-1 lead over an Oklahoma City team that features better personnel.
The only explanation is that the Jazz’s Quin Snyder and his staff are out-coaching Donovan’s group, to an almost unfair degree. And this is the same Billy Donovan who won two NCAA championships as Florida’s coach.
The Jazz have won three straight games over the Thunder, including consecutive home victories. That’s the part I didn’t believe was possible, based on the Jazz’s recent playoff history at Vivint Smart Home Arena. So I’m declaring the franchise’s home-court aura restored, after the toughness and offensive power the Jazz displayed Saturday and Monday, at the expense of the Thunder.
Donovan Mitchell’s 33 points, Joe Ingles’ 3-point flurry at the end of the first half and Ricky Rubio’s steady play with 13 points and eight assists in the wake of OKC guard Russell Westbrook’s “guarantee” to shut him down all conspired to make Snyder look good again.
Mitchell was especially effective in driving to the basket. “I don’t think he’s trying to do anything special, he’s just playing. … He’s our most dynamic offensive player,” Snyder said.
Donovan pointed to inconsistency as the Thunder’s problem, saying, “We do things at a really, really high level for a long period of time.”
Just not long enough, as illustrated by the Jazz’s 20-3 run spanning halftime that basically decided the game.
Who could have seen this coming? Well, one biased, hometown writer did. “In my head, I always knew we’d surprise everybody,” Jazz center Rudy Gobert wrote in The Players’ Tribune. “... We’ve got the best rookie in the NBA. We’ve got the best defense in the NBA. We have one of the best coaches.”
That’s all true, although this series is not quite over yet. Reality suggests the Thunder will win Wednesday’s Game 5 in Oklahoma City, forcing the Jazz to deliver another strong showing at home Friday to close out the series in Game 6.
The Jazz’s position is highly favorable, though. And unless OKC produces a stirring comeback to win the series, Donovan and the Thunder will launch an offseason filled with questions.
This season was their shot to do something, with Paul George having joined the team last summer with one year left on his contract. The Thunder had to show him signs that the franchise was going places — or else he would do that by himself, signing with the Los Angeles Lakers or another team.
That’s similar to the challenge the Jazz faced last April, when not even a first-round series victory over the Los Angeles Clippers was enough to persuade Gordon Hayward to stay, as it turned out. So all the pressure is on the Thunder in this series. That’s especially true of Donovan.
Everyone believed going into the series that if the Thunder advanced, it would be because they had better players. And if the Jazz won, it would be because of Snyder. With full credit to the Jazz players and fair criticism of the OKC players, that’s basically how this series is unfolding. Other than his timeouts that have stopped the Jazz’s momentum occasionally, Donovan is not doing anything that Snyder has been unable to counter.
Donovan’s strategy of allowing Westbrook to play with three fouls in the second quarter backfired when the guard picked up his fourth foul on a charge late in the first half. Westbrook’s defense clearly was affected, as the Jazz totaled 66 points in the second and third quarters.
The foul trouble “probably took away his aggressiveness on defense,” Donovan said.
Having led by one point late in the first half, the Thunder trailed by 17 entering the fourth quarter, and they never threatened after that. Asked where his team stands, Donovan said, “Yeah, seven-game series. First team to four [wins]. … We’ll regroup.”
OKC will have to recover quickly, just to earn another visit to Vivint.
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