Conley Shows Out, Scores 25 In Controlling Victory Over Celtics

March 7th, 2020 | by Mark Russell Pereira

Conley carved up the Boston defense and led Utah to a road win. (Brian Babineau via espn.com)

Mike Conley Jr. has seen the public chirping about his performance during his inaugral Utah Jazz season. Conley’s low-key nature doesn’t lend itself to public Twitter retorts, but Conley knows that the court of public opinion has not been in his favor.

Conley’s shooting and fit struggles in the first quarter of the 2019-2020 season may have unfairly clouded the tremendous positives Conley has brought to the Jazz as of late. Averaging a tidy 17/4/5 since returning to the starting lineup, Conley has simultaneously kept bench units under control, while also providing a dangerous release valve in the Jazz’s best crunch time lineup.

Friday night’s 99-94 victory in Boston was Conley’s best game in a Jazz uniform thus far. This wasn’t just because of jump shots finding the bottom of the net, but also apparent from Conley’s control over the offense and gritty contributions on the defensive end.

First Quarter

Boston was without Jaylen Brown (hamstring strain) and Jazz nemesis Gordon Hayward (knee bruise). This opened up starting opportunities for forward Semi Ojeleye (34 minutes) and guard Marcus Smart (37 minutes), while also giving Smart’s sixth-man role to Brad Wanamaker. The Celtics still had their two All-Stars available in Jayson Tatum and Kemba Walker, though, and the Jazz would have to execute admirably to obtain a victory.

Boston’s starters raced out to an early 11-point advantage, primarily effectuated by four Utah turnovers, three Smart three-pointers, and a series of Boston drives in which starting center Daniel Theis was sealing off Rudy Gobert:

After a frustrating offensive rebound by the Celtics that sailed over Gobert’s head at the 3:06 mark, the Jazz reinserted Conley—substituted early for Joe Ingles after making two 3-pointers—with Tony Bradley and Georges Niang. Utah immediately went to a zone defense to frustrate the after-timeout action by Boston—they would then switch it on and off throughout the game.

This sparked Utah’s best run of the game, a 14-2 run to end the quarter that included a Conley lob assist to Bradley and a Conley and-1 from a bump foul that Conley sold well. After one quarter, Utah was up 30-29, led by Conley’s 9 points.

Second Quarter

The Jazz’s other nemesis, Enes Kanter, started the second quarter, getting an easy bucket while posting up Bradley, but that would constitute the Celtics’ last lead of the game. From here, Conley had his best quarter in an otherwise complete game from him.

Conley added a couple more 3-pointers to his tally, both the result of rising up around a screen:

Conley also put Boston’s defense where he wanted them. Here, you can see him practically direct Wanamaker over to Jordan Clarkson with his eyes, so he can free up Tony Bradley in the lane:

And check out how Conley bends the defense to overhelp with his low, probing drive, creating (and finding) an easy shot for Donovan Mitchell at the end of the quarter:

Together with Clarkson’s consistent bench scoring and creation, the Jazz had too much for a limited Boston bench to handle, and extended their lead to 62-49 to end the half.

Third Quarter

Utah opened up their second half scoring with Conley’s fifth (!) three-pointer (again confidently rising up around a screen), but quickly fell into a frustrating rut of turnovers and weak rebounding. Utah would end up committing 18 turnovers and allowing 13 offensive rebounds in the game.

There were a few caroms off the rim that Gobert normally reacts quicker to, but instead gave up second shot attempts, like this Theis and-1 that capped a 10-0 Boston run:

Boston played their own zone schemes (seemingly alternating between a 2-3 and 3-2 zones, depending on personnel) which limited the natural free-flowing actions of Utah’s offense. For those clamoring for Gobert to “get a post move”, he absolutely delivered with this zone-busting seal and dunk:

However, Utah’s own mix of defensive schemes frustrated Boston in the third quarter, and the teams played to a very 1990s-esque 17-17 tie in the frame. Utah had a controlling 13-point lead entering the fourth quarter.

Fourth Quarter

After each team’s benches played to a rough draw for the first half of the fourth quarter, Conley hit a pair of pure star-power pull-up jumpers that cemented this game as Conley’s brightest moment as a Jazzman:

A series of bizarre turnovers late in the game (including, yes, one by Conley) allowed the Celtics to make a quick 7-0 run to pull within 7, but it was too late. Ultimately the Jazz never relinquished the lead from the 11:27 mark of the 2nd quarter, which is incredibly impressive against a quality opponent on the road. The Jazz never let Boston really mount a comeback for an extended stretch of time:

The game flow chart for Jazz-Celtics, from nba.com

Conley said postgame “my teammates have been behind me this whole time. It’s been a frustrating road for all of us because they know how good I am and I know how good I am.” Hopefully Jazz fans at large acknowledge what Conley and his teammates know as a fundamental truth: Conley is really, really good at basketball, and the best, championship-contending version of the Jazz come with a top-flight Conley.

Grace notes:

  • Single-game plus/minus doesn’t always tell an accurate story, but it certainly was illuminating on Friday:

Good night for the reserves

  • Twice in the 3rd quarter, Conley had nice floaters taken away by really rough charge calls:

There is hardly a difference between these plays and a defender undercutting a jump shooter to not allow them to land cleanly. In both cases, the defender is still moving to “their” spot by the time Conley is in the air with his floater attempt. All this serves to do is give the shooter nowhere to land safely, under the pretense that the shooter is “out of control”. These are two of the more egregious examples you’ll see of this, particularly because Conley is extremely restrained and gentle in his floater attempts, as opposed to a more reckless driving layup attempt. These are bastardizations of the rule, and the call generally should not be made if the defender has not established position by the time the shooter is in the air. If this were the case, anyone who has watched enough Marcus Smart would be thrilled to have him stop putting opponents at an injury risk. These two calls and a very dubious carrying call amounted to 3 of Conley’s 5 turnovers, for perspective.

  • Quin Snyder had another inexplicable challenge. It was early in the second quarter—hardly crunch time—and Ojeleye had cut in under a Clarkson layup attempt on a fast break to draw the charge. Ojeleye was easily outside of the restricted area, and Clarkson wasn’t in foul trouble. There simply isn’t a reason to challenge this call, even if you believe Ojeleye was late in establishing position for the charge: it’s a low-leverage situation, and block/charge calls need to be horrifyingly obvious for the call to be overturned. Snyder needs to be way lighter on his challenge trigger finger.
  • Bradley was quite solid tonight. Walker got him once on a drive that didn’t include a contest from Bradley, but Bradley blocked two other Walker drives and positioned himself well offensively.
  • Really off night for Mitchell, shooting 3-15 (including 0-5 from inside the arc) and committing three of the uglier turnovers of the night. However, he commanded a lot of defensive attention that opened up other offensive action, and so his poor shooting didn’t feel as negatively impactful as it has on other nights.
  • Something tells me Conley hates getting unnecessary water in his hair:

Up Next

Utah catches a quick flight to Detroit for the second half of a back-to-back on Saturday night to close out the East coast road trip. Then they’ll return home to face the defending champion Toronto Raptors on Monday.

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