Jazz Beat the Nets 101-91, Deal Burks for Korver

Gobert dominated on both ends in a 10-point win over the Nets. (Nathaniel S. Butler via utahjazz.com)

The Utah Jazz had a busy Wednesday night in their lone visit to Brooklyn of the 2018-19 season. In a matter of a few hours, the club acquired shooting help, ended their relationship with the second longest-tenured Jazz player, and then beat the Nets on their home floor behind dominant performances from their two best players.

First, the Game

Rudy Gobert paced the Jazz all night with a 23-point, 16-rebound performance, and then Donovan Mitchell sealed the deal by scoring 14 of his game-high 29 points in the contest’s final nine and a half minutes. 

But it was at the other end that Utah secured its 10th win of the season. In one of their most defensively connected quarters of the year, the Jazz held Brooklyn to 2-for-17 shooting and seven turnovers in that final frame. The dominant defensive quarter allowed Utah to close the game on a 34-13 push after Brooklyn briefly stretched its lead to 11 on a Spencer Dinwiddie three late in the third. From that point on, the Nets had a hard time scoring against a team led by the Defensive Player of the Year.

“(Gobert) played well,” said Jazz coach Quin Snyder. “He has taken a lot of pride in evolving as a player on both ends… I liked his aggressiveness, he was in a stance, just a lot of things that we’ve been talking about and that he’s been working on.”

Brooklyn didn’t record a single assist or make a 3-pointer in that final quarter, and when they did get to the paint, Gobert was there waiting. He had two blocks in the period (four total), keying an impressive defensive performance — to say nothing of his consistent scoring throughout the night, largely in pick-and-roll action and on second chances.

“Huge. Man, that is the Rudy that we all know,” Mitchell said after the game. “He really sparked us. In the beginning of the game, nobody was making shots. He was down there rebounding the ball, fighting, competing. I think that’s really what got us going.”

Despite that spark, Utah was in trouble after Dinwiddie got hot in the third quarter. They found themselves facing a double digit deficit on the road, and at that point it would have been easy for a team that had lost six of its previous eight games to let it slip away. Instead, the Jazz fought back, and they did it by halting the Nets’ attack.

“We were down eight (heading into the fourth quarter), so we knew if we played defense for a full quarter, we were going to win this game,” Gobert said.

While Brooklyn was struggling to score, the Jazz were benefitting from the late scoring punch of Mitchell, who outscored the hosts in the fourth quarter by himself. He did most of his damage in the game’s final five minutes, after the Nets had taken the lead back at 87-86. Mitchell drove for back-to-back layups, then hit a just-plain-silly step-back three. Then he and Gobert finished things off with a pair of scoring trips each.

“I don’t look at it as like I have to close it out. I just go out there and play,” Mitchell said of his late scoring surge. “My teammates have all the confidence in the world in me – scoring, passing, whatever it may be.”

When Gobert threw this nasty dunk down to make it a 6-point Jazz lead with a minute left, the writing was on the wall.

THE FURY pic.twitter.com/kNF5pDT8hS

— Utah Jazz (@utahjazz) November 29, 2018

Reserve wing Royce O’Neale also had his best game in a while, scoring 13, draining all three of his long-range shots, and playing great defense. Raul Neto scored 11 and ran the bench unit well, and Derrick Favors only narrowly missed a double-double, with nine points and 10 boards.

Dinwiddie’s 18 led the home team, while three other Nets added 14 apiece: Jarrett Allen, Rondae Hollis-Jefferson and D’Angelo Russell.

Utah continues its road trip with stops in Charlotte and Miami this weekend. 

“We have to go into Charlotte with the same mentality – never let up,” Mitchell added. “We can’t feel like we’re back because we won one game. We have two more games on this road trip and we have to be able to stay with the same concentration and focus.”

Adieu, Alec

Oddly, though, the win over Brooklyn wasn’t the biggest news to come from the Jazz on Wednesday. Literally minutes before the game started, word crept out from ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski that Utah had pulled off a trade to address its early 3-point shooting deficiencies. The Jazz agreed to a deal in which they acquire NBA veteran, 3-point specialist and former Jazzman Kyle Korver from the Cleveland Cavaliers.

The deal cost them Alec Burks, a locker room favorite who has been with the Jazz longer than any player other than Favors. Burks was with the team in Brooklyn when he got the news, which meant that his Jazz teammates had to bid him farewell even as the countdown clock in their Barclays Center locker room was bringing them closer to tipoff.

“It’s tough to have that happen right before a game. That’s my first time that’s happened,” said Mitchell. “AB’s my guy. He’s really a funny dude, he’s always keeping a positive vibe. I wish him the best in Cleveland, I know he’s going to excel and do well.”

As SCH’s Ken Clayton tweeted during the game, Burks leaves the Jazz after appearing in 382 games over his seven-plus NBA seasons. He was the club’s selection with the twelfth pick in the 2011 Draft, and since then he has averaged 9.6 points per game. After fighting through several injuries over the past several seasons, Burks was averaging 16 minutes a game in Snyder’s rotation this season. Per Eric Woodyward’s sourced report, Burks is excited to potentially secure a steadier role with the Cavs.

Korver Returns

In exchange for Burks and a couple of future second-round picks, Utah gets one of the premier catch-and-shoot threats from the last decade and a half. Korver is a career 43-percent shooter from outside, and his reputation as a knockdown threat creates substantial gravity that should help Utah’s spacing when he plays. He’s also a good decision-maker who doesn’t let the ball stick, and while he’s not a lockdown defender in one-on-one situations, he plays solid system defense. In other words, he won’t shut guys down all on his own, but he also won’t make a bunch of mistakes that undermine the team’s defensive schemes.

He is also familiar with his new environs, having played 180 games for the Jazz over a three-season stint. He has stayed connected to the community, with a charitable foundation that still does work locally. ESPN’s Brian Windhorst is reporting that Korver and his family are happy with the trade back to Utah. He’s a savvy veteran and, as Favors put it, “someone who has been in every situation.”

“He’s a great shooter,” Jazz guard Dante Exum said of Korver just minutes after learning about the trade himself. “Hopefully I can learn a few things, I think I’ve got the form and everything, I just need to see what he does special. But I’m looking forward to it.”

Korver should provide a much-needed boost in 3-point shooting to a team that entered the night second to last in outside shooting percentage at just under 32 percent. There are potential downsides to the deal, starting with Korver’s age. He’s 37, so while he’ll certainly boost the shooting performance in the short term, it’s unlikely that he’ll figure into the Jazz’s future plans as they continue working toward title contention.

There is a financial drawback as well, although not a huge one. Korver’s $7.5 million salary for next season cuts into Utah’s ability to create max cap space to add an impact player. Only $3.4 million is guaranteed should they choose instead to part with him after the season is over, or they could even stretch that guaranteed amount and take a $1.13 million cap hit in each of the next three seasons. But bottom line: Korver will cut into Utah’s summer spending ability, by one of those three amounts.

Still, it’s a worthy risk for a team that has been woefully light on 3-point shooting. They’ve got volume shooters like Mitchell (6.7 attempts per game) and Jae Crowder (6.5) at below 30 percent, and Ricky Rubio’s percentage dipped from 33.3 to 31.6 after another off shooting night in Brooklyn.

“We’re not a terrible 3-point shooting team, guys are just missing shots that they normally make,” Favors said. “So that’s something we can definitely improve on, and Kyle Korver can help with that.”

All in all, it was a productive trip to Brooklyn. The Jazz left Atlantic Avenue with a much-needed win, and with a 3-point shooting veteran on his way to provide reinforcements.