Late Stop Saves Jazz in New Orleans on Off Night for the D

January 7th, 2020 | by Dan Clayton

Gobert and Ingram were destined to collide in New Orleans. (Layne Murdoch Jr. via espn.com)

Like two poles of a magnet, Brandon Ingram and Rudy Gobert seemed destined to come together on Monday night. With just seconds remaining, the inevitable happened: a dynamic scorer crossed midcourt with a full head of steam, and there in his path stood the league’s top defender, his magnetic opposite.

Unstoppable force, meet immovable object.

The Jazz had one of their worst defensive outings of the entire season, but got the stop that counted most. In a wild finish, Gobert met the Pelicans star at the rim to force a miss on a would-by tying layup as time expired. Ingram expected a foul call, but instead the Jazz escaped Louisiana with their sixth straight win, 128-126.

Before that final stop, Utah’s defense had struggled greatly to contain Ingram and the rest of the Pelicans. Their defensive rating for the night was 127.3, literally their worst defensive outing of the season so far. Ingram shot over shorter defenders and attacked the lane on his way to 35, while guards JJ Redick and Lonzo Ball were up to their usual stuff from outside, scoring 23 and 21, respectively.

In order to survive their shaky defensive night and leave the Smoothie King Center unscathed, the Jazz had to also bring their offensive A-game. Bojan Bogdanovic shook off a shooting slump to score 35 on 11-for-21 shooting and a perfect 10-for-10 from the charity stripe. Joe Ingles added 22 and Donovan Mitchell chipped in another 19. Gobert missed double figures with nine points after being shut out in the first half, but he grabbed 19 rebounds.

The Pelicans have been playing far better of late, riding a 5-1 stretch into Monday night’s game. That surge includes wins in Portland and Denver, as well as at home against the Pacers and Rockets. Ingram has averaged 23-6-4 over that stretch, including 45% shooting from three. So he was certainly at the top of Utah’s scouting report, especially with star guard Jrue Holiday off for the evening, and rehabbing rookie Zion Williamson still out.

Ingram kept things interesting throughout, but a strong third quarter gave the Jazz a little separation. They led by 11 at the 4:47 mark of the quarter, 92-81. But New Orleans soon started a run, sparked by back-to-back dunks by athletic rookie Jaxson Hayes. Utah would score just one field goal in the rest of the period as the Pels surged into the lead with a 16-3 run (18-3 counting their first possession of the fourth).

Down four, it was Utah’s turn. The Jazz reeled off six straight to edge back in front, and they’d never trail again. But the drama was far from over.

Bogdanovic’s 10-point quarter helped Utah stay in the pole position throughout that final frame. Then in the final three minutes, Ingles knocked down free throws, connected with Gobert on an alley-oop, and then stole an errant Ingram pass to help the Jazz go up 126-121 with 2:07 left. That could have done it, but a pair of empty possessions opened the door for New Orleans, and Ingram knotted the game back at 126-all with 1:28 to play.

Mitchell responded with a midrange pullup with over a minute left — weirdly the last score in this offensive shootout. Royce O’Neale and Redick traded missed threes, and then Bogdanovic misfired on a late bomb that would have put the game on ice. Ingram rebounded and the Pels decided to attack without a timeout. The long, athletic forward covered the length of the court in something like four seconds, then tried to score over the two-time Defensive Player of the Year.

Here is that final play:

It does appear as though Gobert’s left hand got some of Ingram’s arm. But Ingram had already partially lost control of the ball, which had rolled out of his palm and across his wrist before the apparent contact was made. Various replay angles also show that Ingram pulled the French center into his body with the off arm to force contact, which may have caused the referees to give Gobert the benefit of the doubt. Since Gobert initially contested in legal guarding position and then was pulled laterally (and illegally) by Ingram, the refs may have made the determination that any contact here was Ingram’s doing.

Ingram tries to force contact, which might have ultimately cost him the call.

Bottom line, this is a tough one even with various replay angle and freeze-frame shots. The refs decided in real-time to let it go, and non-calls are not subject to review or to coach’s challenges. So the result stood.

Lead referee Kane Fitzgerald told a pool reporter after the game: “We felt during live play that Rudy played legal defense.”

The Jazz vacated the court while the Pelicans stood around protesting the non-call. Eventually Fitzgerald did conduct a review just to ensure that the clock had functioned properly and that the time had indeed expired. But the Jazz had already left their bench, heading toward their locker room to celebrate another successful night away from home.

The two-point win was the Jazz’s sixth straight victory overall, their 11th in the last 12 games, and their seventh road win in their last eight outings.

Sometimes surviving is enough, and the Jazz found a way to keep their streak alive.

Stats of the Game

44:22: To say this one was close throughout would be an understatement. For 44:22 of the 48-minute affair, neither team had more than a 6-point lead. That means that for 92.4% of the game, the score was within a two-possession margin. The Jazz held an 8-0 lead for exactly 10 seconds early on, then led by 7-9 points for 48 seconds in the third quarter, then held a 7-point lead for 11 more seconds before leading by 7-11 for 2:17. That’s a total of 3:38 during which one could describe their lead as even remotely comfortable.

0: Bogdanovic had a special offensive night, but a rare series of goose eggs across the rest of his stat sheet. It’s the second time in his career he has finished a game with 25+ points, but no rebounds, assists, steals or blocks, making him the only player in league history to have more than one such performance, per ESPN Stats & Info.  It’s also just the second time ever that a player has had a single game with 35+ and nothing in the other four positive stat categories, Statmuse tells us.

-9: Utah was still negative — to the tune of minus-9 — in the 9.2 minutes when neither Mitchell nor Ingles was on the floor. When Mike Conley eventually returns, one would have to think that those minutes will get closer and closer to zero. Right now, the Jazz just lack reliable creation options when both of those two are sitting. Even since the Jazz acquired bench scorer Jordan Clarkson to shore up their guard rotation, the club is -11 over six games when both Mitchell and Ingles sit.

17: The Jazz actually got outscored in the clutch, 13-11, which will hurt their clutch Net Rating for the season. But overall, Utah still owns a clutch record of 17-6, a huge improvement over last year’s 15-18. Those 17 clutch wins lead the NBA. Three teams (Heat, Bucks, Lakers) have slightly better clutch winning percentages, but have played fewer games that were within five during the last five minutes.

Line of the Game

Bogey did the heavy lifting on offense, but the most complete line of the night was probably Ingles’. He had 22 points on 8-of-12 shooting, plus six assists, a pair of rebounds, and two steals. He also shot 4-for-5 from downtown.

Decisive Moment

Mitchell’s clutch bucket with 1:12 left set the table for Utah to win the game on the defensive end, and they did just that. The offensively gifted Ingram and the defensive stalwart Gobert appeared to be on a crash course, and the moment that their paths crossed was very literally the decisive moment in this one. Gobert once again decided a game with a paint stop. If people talked about game-winning defensive plays the same way they talk about game-winning scores, Gobert would be all over SportsCenter by now.

Meanwhile, give Mitchell credit: his clutch true shooting is up to .540 this season, from .477 a year ago. 

Highlight of the Game

Here’s Mitchell getting fancy.

Social

So this is fun: apparently the Jazz have been calling Gobert “two-time” to denote his back-to-back DPOY honors, and after certain big defensive stops, they flash two fingers in his direction as a vote of confidence in and appreciation for their defensively dominant teammate. It happened again after Gobert stonewalled Ingram in the game’s final seconds.

Notes

  • The weird ending robbed Jazz players of the chance to exchange post-game greetings with fan favorite Derrick Favors, now a Pelican. Since the Pelicans were awaiting the outcome of a clock review following Ingram’s last-second miss, they stayed on the court while the Jazz headed toward the locker room. Eventually Ingles made his way back out to exchange greetings with Favors, Redick and others, but most of the team stayed in the back.
  • Favors also missed the Pels’ first trip to Salt Lake City, so he has yet to be thanked by the Vivint Arena crowd for his nine years as a Jazz player. The Pelicans will make their way back to Utah on March 13, though.
  • Clarkson had 16 tonight off the bench, his fourth time reaching double figures in six games since joining the Jazz. His Jazz average is up to 13.8 points per game.

    Up Next

    Utah heads home for a brief respite from the road. They’ll face New York on Wednesday and Charlotte on Friday, and then head back out for another 3-game trip that will take them back through New Orleans late next week. It’s all part of a run of 10 straight games against teams that currently sport a sub-.500 record.

     

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