Three thoughts on the Utah Jazz’s 112-104 win over the New York Knicks from Salt Lake Tribune Jazz beat writer Andy Larsen.
1. Jazz get Gobert involved offensively, profit
In the last two wins against bad teams, the Jazz needed their 3-point shots to fall to get wins. This time, though, they only shot 27.8% from deep. If they were going to score, they needed to get their baskets inside.
That they were successful makes sense: the Knicks didn’t have Mitchell Robinson, so they had exactly zero scary rim protectors. That meant lobs and passes inside faced less opposition than usual, and the Jazz took advantage.
The Gobert Factor — the offensive version — showed most of all in the third quarter, when the Knicks had cut the Jazz lead to three. On four of five consecutive possessions, the Jazz went to pick and roll with Gobert and found easy points as a result.
This one is a Spain pick-and-roll — note the secondary screen set by Bojan Bogdanovic — but it’s still indicative of the trend. Look how worried Taj Gibson is about Gobert’s roll, not doing anything about Mitchell coming down the lane until way too late.
Next play, standard pick and roll. Again, Gibson makes sure to get his body on Gobert, leaving Mitchell to score the easy two points.
Finally, it was Bogdanovic’s turn to run pick and roll with Gobert. Bogey was fouled on his drive, and went to the line for two free throws. The one Gobert lob just freaked the Knicks out, leading to these three consecutive drives for points.
The result of all this: the Jazz made 23 of their 26 shots at the rim tonight, including 20 of their first 21 before the garbage-time lineup was put in. Again, you have to note the opponent: The Knicks are the 23rd-ranked defense in the league and were missing their center. But the Jazz need to be more consistent about generating good rim looks in general, and they did that tonight.
2. Gang rebounding against the Knicks
Did you know that the Knicks are the best offensive rebounding team in the league? They have some terrific individual offensive rebounders, though again, Robinson’s absence hurt their abilities here. It also probably says something about offensive rebounding as a strategy that they’re No. 1 in this category, yet so awful overall.
The Knicks did get 11 offensive rebounds tonight, but that’s short of their season average of 12.2 per game. But after they got 17 and 20 offensive rebounds respectively in their last two games — both wins — I was a little concerned how this would go for the Jazz. Gobert’s a pretty good rebounder, but he can have trouble in traffic, and the Knicks send a lot of traffic.
But I thought the Jazz did a good job gang-rebounding, getting their bodies in the paint and competing for boards as well. For example, this it a tough one: this rebound clangs of the rim all the way to the free-throw line. But Mitchell has his body between himself and Gibson, jumps as high as he can, and gets a hand on it. Then, because Conley has boxed out Elfrid Payton, he ends up with the board.
I thought Royce O’Neale did a nice job, in particular, of getting inside and collecting the loose ball. Again, it’s very easy to imagine the Knicks getting this ball if O’Neale isn’t there, but he sticks out his long arm and collects it to start a fast break.
Most rebounds today in the NBA are completely uncontested, but the Knicks’ strategy of play is similar to 1990s basketball: they really try to pack the paint. The Jazz had a unique challenge in that facet of the game tonight, and passed the test.
3. Young players calling their own number
After three straight games against bad teams, it’s easy to tell some commonalities between the opponents that have led to their poor records. Obviously, the biggest one in the last week has been poor defense: bad teams sometimes literally give up in the middle of possessions, sometimes they chase after non-threats, sometimes they gamble and lose, and sometimes they try their best but just aren’t that good on the defensive end.
But these teams have all featured young offensive talents, ones that might, if things go really well, be the future scoring stars of the NBA. Rui Hachimura, Collin Sexton, Kevin Porter, R.J. Barrett, and Kevin Knox are all offensively gifted players that are trying their best to show their value in the NBA.
What that means, though, is that they often force some really bad shots that short circuit offensive possessions and lessen a team identity. Here’s Barrett, going 1-on-2 and getting a fadeaway that barely hits iron.
I’m more okay with this pull-up transition three from Knox, even though it misses badly and short circuits the possession. Essentially, three is enough more than two that threes are usually at least sort of okay shots.
But that kind of play is also deflating. Five second after forcing a miss and catching the rebound, Knox’s teammates have to go back to work on the defensive end. Jordan Clarkson got an easy layup on the next possession. Coincidence? Maybe. But maybe not.
Actually, that’s something that could be studied: how correlated is shot quality with next possession defense? Obviously, missed shots sometimes lead to fast breaks, but what about the non-transition possessions? The shot-by-shot quality data isn’t publicly available for me to do that study, but some enterprising team employee should.
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