The Triple Team: Jazz slice and dice the Lakers’ defense to move to the top seed in the West

Three thoughts on the Utah Jazz’s 139-116 win over the Los Angeles Lakers from Salt Lake Tribune Jazz beat writer Andy Larsen.

1. The Jazz, slicing and dicing a bad defense

The Lakers have statistically been a good defense this year, but without LeBron James, Patrick Beverley, Lonnie Walker, and Thomas Bryant, they’re just asking a lot from players who are on the fringes of the NBA. So it was the Jazz’s responsibility to figure out how to attack them most effectively tonight.

As usual, the brains behind the operation was Mike Conley, who has been terrific again to start the season. He had 12 assists tonight, and is now averaging 7.5 per game — his career high in assists per game by a significant amount.

This was the play that got everyone talking online: Talen Horton-Tucker has the dunk of the season. Absolutely ferocious.

But look at how Conley’s able to set it up: he pushes in transition, and then after delivering the dumpoff pass, he gets just enough in the way of Austin Reeves to give Horton-Tucker a lane to the rim, without being called for a moving screen. After that, it’s just a two-on-one at the rim, and THT can finish with a lob to Kessler, or his more fun way — which also had the benefit of being an and-one.

Unprompted, Horton-Tucker gave credit to Conley for the dunk when asked about it postgame, which is a pretty mature way for a 21-year-old to respond to a highlight-reel play like that.

This was the play the team was most excited about postgame, though:

Collin Sexton and Conley were talking about that play in the locker room after the game, just about how quickly the ball was popping around the court. Sexton said that as soon as the screen was set, he knew that his teammates would find him in the corner eventually — and that it’s fun to play on a team like that.

I’ll be honest: it’s actually adorable how much Sexton looks up to Conley. My coworker Eric Walden had the definitive story on that relationship here.

Regardless, it’s the sign of a veteran group, to be able to score 140 when the opportunity was there. We didn’t think this was a veteran group, but they’ve absolutely played like one to start the season — and now they have the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference.

Cue Lakers sadness, at No. 14 in the West.

2. Slashers on the weak side wing

There’s one position Will Hardy has mentioned a couple of times in the last few press conferences that I’ve been watching for as a result: the guy standing at the wing on the other side of the arc when the Jazz run pick and roll. The Jazz have been getting a ton of offensive production from that spot against these L.A. teams.

I know it can be hard to visualize, so here’s what I mean. Conley runs a pick and roll with Walker Kessler — watch how Russell Westbrook sinks in to the paint, leaving Sexton open.

Sexton makes two really good choices above. Westbrook is close enough to close out, so first, he gets him off his feet with the pump fake. Then, Reeves is close enough to help after Westbrook slides by, and Sexton extinguishes him with the fake pass. It’s an easy jumper from there, and oh, Sexton has the league’s 3rd-best pullup shooting percentage so far.

Or this video, from last night’s game, the Jazz actually have two players in the similar spots: Malik Beasley at the top of the arc, ready to hit a catch-and-shoot three, and Sexton ready to do what he does here.

“Cutting is a big part of how we play. In order to get 3-point shots up, you have to collapse the defense a little bit and create some pressure on the rim. Some teams are able to do that by one on one dribble drive, some teams do it with pick and roll, with a threat rolling down the middle of the lane,” Will Hardy said. “For our team with our personnel, the way that we’re playing with our spacing is cutting — that ends up helping us put some pressure on the rim. We’ve seen Lauri in that spot a good amount this year, Collin last game.”

3. Knowing what it feels like

I am not an athlete. Okay, sure, I play pickup basketball, and tennis and soccer and pickleball and whatever else, but I am not actually good at those sports. No one comes to my games. I am, first and foremost, a typer. While I suspect many of you have non-typing jobs, I also suspect that very few of you are current or former professional athletes.

And so neither I, nor you, have any idea what it feels like to dunk like Horton-Tucker did.

“Like the last few times, like the dunk I had against Houston, too, I just came up smiling,” Horton-Tucker said. “I think — it’s just — I’m just happy.”

And neither I, nor you, have any idea what it feels like to hit a buzzer-beating shot and look up into a crowd of 20,000 like this.

“It’s beautiful. I love playing in front of the Utah crowd, making a shot like that, just giving the crowd energy, giving the team energy, whatever it is,” Clarkson said. “The crowd and all that, just embracing them and knowing that we’re out there competing for them, just like they’re showing us love, showing up to the games and packing it up just like they were the years before.”

He continued. “It’s just like classic good Utah loudness. When those plays happen, it gets so loud in there it almost becomes quiet.”

Now that’s philosophical. Want to re-create an awesome Jazz play in your home? Do something extremely cool — and then don’t make a sound.