Jazz Smother Heat 102-91

(Pedro Portal / Miami Herald)

Story of the Game

The Jazz are the NBA’s anaconda: strong, long, systematic, and smothering. They coil around the paint and squeeze the life from those who dare enter. Teams lacking the ability to shoot Utah out of that coil get smothered, which is exactly what happened to the reeling Miami Heat, who are now  two and six on the season.

Miami attempted only 17 three-point shots this game, fewer than any team in the league is averaging on the year and seven fewer than their own typical game total. That formula worked so long as they shot 53-percent from the field, as they did in the first half while the Jazz adjusted to the loss of forward Derrick Favors from knee pain. Then Jazz coach Quin Snyder made halftime adjustments and his team promptly outscored the anemic Heat 17 to four over the first nine minutes of the third quarter. Game over. The final margin of 11 was cosmetic, the result of threes by Derrick Williams and Rodney McGruder in the final minute making it look closer than it was.

Hayward is freshly back from injury and still adjusting his bandaged finger as he plays. George Hill has missed four straight contests since being named the Western Conference Player of the Week. Favors has played without lift since returning from a left knee injury, the same injury that took him off the floor tonight.  Yet the team just racked up four wins compared to a single loss, all on the road nearly two thousand miles from home, all in seven days.

This team is really good, and if they can ever get truly healthy, should be great.

Stars of the Game

Superstar: Gordon Hayward

Hayward notched his fifth straight game of 20-plus points (25 pts, 9 reb, 4 ast, 50% FG), a career-tying streak. The Jazz captain once again drove the offense, powering his team to a plus-21 while on the floor. While the points grab the eye, it’s Hayward’s ability to draw the foul and finish that most marks his growth thus far this season. He had a ridiculous five and-one baskets on the night, making each of the shot attempts. Where in the past he often sought fouls that didn’t come and so turned the ball over when no whistle came, this season he’s getting into defenders with the intent of giving himself space to take a quality shot – and as a bonus, he’s getting the whistles too.

Secondary Stars: Rodney Hood, Rudy Gobert

Hood is doing exactly what Quin Snyder has asked of him: pushing through the times where his jumper isn’t falling. He followed his 11-point fourth quarter against Orlando with a solid 17 points on 13 shots in Miami, solid efficiency made possible by going four of four from the free throw line.

In what was¹ a headline matchup with Hassan Whiteside, Gobert did more than match his heavier counterpart. While Whiteside edged out the Frenchman in the statistical battle², Gobert dominated the war by helping his team outscore the Heat by 22 while on the floor. With Whiteside on court, the Heat were outscored by 23.

Secret Stars: Dante Exum, Shelvin Mack

George Hill’s magnificent start to the season made clear his absence can’t possibly be filled by the combination of the 21-year-old Aussie or the role-playing Mack. But the easiest way to avoid the Jazz’s dominant half-court defense is to score before it ever gets set in the fast break, which is fueled by turnovers. Against the Heat, Exum and Mack turned the ball over once each, helping the Jazz restrict their lost possessions to only nine all game. While the 22 points on 18 shots is solid, and three assists in fifty combined minutes is nothing to brag about, it’s retaining possession that Utah most needs from its stop-gap point guards. This game, they provided that.

Stats of the Game

5:55 – The minutes Derrick Favors played in the game before leaving with left knee soreness. He already had six points when he left for the night. D-Fav’s past few games³ saw him finally settle into his groove, combining 62-percent shooting with a nasty defensive rating of 87.2 points allowed per 100 possessions. But anyone watching couldn’t help but see he still lacks explosiveness and confidence in his leg. With his teammates playing so well in adverse circumstances and a return trip home on the horizon, hopefully the team can keep winning while he gets right.

4 – Offensive rebounds by the Heat. While Whiteside leads the NBA in total rebounds and lived up to that status tonight with 14, the Jazz did a phenomenal job holding Miami, who typically grab 11 offensive rebounds a game, to nearly a third their typical total.

5 – Personal fouls on Gobert. That’s the fourth time in seven contests Gobert has flirted with fouling out⁴. What is an otherwise strong start to the season could be compromised if the Stifle Tower is hesitant out of fear of whistles, particularly if Favors misses much time.

Sundries

• Its far too early to predict whether he’ll succeed or not, but Dante Exum has it in him to be a basketball monstrosity. It’s only flashes at this point, but they’re there. His layup on the one-man fastbreak over two defenders in the second quarter, showing he will usually be the fastest man on the floor. His two made threes on four attempts⁵. His ability to cut off drives to the basket by speedy guards half a foot shorter⁶. He can become a two-way matchup nightmare.
• Hassan Whiteside is not as good as his stats suggest. 17.5 pts, 14.6 rebs, and 2.5 blks looks great. Two wins in eight attempts doesn’t.
• Shelvin Mack has been a mixed bag this season, particularly in regard to his turnovers. His 12 points on eight shots tonight is a little misleading because ten of those points came in the fourth quarter when the game was already decided. But he deserves credit for a fantastic play before the half. Following his own missed three, he sprinted back in time to foul a Heat ballhandler charging to the basket with 1.5 seconds left. As the Jazz had a foul to give, the Heat took the ball out and missed a long three. Great, heady play.
• Trey Lyles went two of seven and missed his only two threes. He’s now shooting 32-percent from the field and 25-percent from the line. His plus-minus (-2.3) is only one of two negatives among major rotation players on the team⁷.

Catch the Jazz Monday as the team goes for seven wins in their last nine games when they, finally, host Memphis at home.