KAT Goes Off, Jazz Go Cold as Minny Wins in Utah, 112-102

November 18th, 2019 | by Dan Clayton

Towns’ scoring brought Minnesota back from a fourth-quarter deficit in Utah (via timberwolves.com)

Up 86-80 with just over nine minutes to go, the Utah Jazz appeared on pace to remain undefeated in their mountain fortress. Karl-Anthony Towns had other ideas.

The Jazz finally fell at home after finding themselves on the wrong end of a 23-4 run in the game’s waning minutes. Towns nailed three consecutive triples to power the run, while the Jazz connected on just 26 percent of their fourth-quarter attempts, and just one of eight from three. The 102-112 loss dropped Utah to 8-5 on the season, 6-1 at home.

Towns’ hat trick from downtown, part of a 29-point night, came after a long night of battle with two-time reigning Defensive Player of the Year Rudy Gobert. Prior to heating up for those three triples, Towns had 20 points on 19 shots, with five turnovers. The KAT-Gobert matchup has always been a fun one: one of the game’s most unstoppable offensive centers against the league’s premier defensive big. That duel has defined Jazz-Wolves games for the last four years, the unstoppable force against the immovable object. Monday night, the unstoppable force broke through.

Bojan Bogdanovic led the Jazz with 18 points and Donovan Mitchell added 17, but the pair struggled late. They combined for just 1-for-9 shooting (the make was a baseline jumper by Mitchell) during the Wolves’ big run, and just 2-for-13 in the quarter overall.

Gobert had a nice night, including 16 points, 15 boards, and 6-for-7 shooting from the line. He stonewalled Towns down low on consecutive third-quarter plays, but ultimately Towns got the last laugh. 

The Jazz jumped out to an early six-point lead, but surrendered it promptly when they went to a smallball reserve unit to close the first quarter. Dante Exum’s return from injury and Tony Bradley’s continued struggles prompted head coach Quin Snyder to try a different approach during the bench minutes. Exum joined fellow perimeter players Mitchell, Emmanuel Mudiay and Joe Ingles, with Jeff Green as the nominal center. It, um, didn’t work.

Green was out of rhythm offensively, and mostly absent in the pick-and-roll defense against Minnesota’s backup center, Gorgui Dieng. The Wolves kept forcing the Jazz into awkward switches and scrambles, and before long, Minnesota had put together a 10-0 run to wrest control back from the hosts. 

Utah got back to its main guys and eventually answered with a 14-2 run of its own, but Robert Covington’s 4-point play made it close again. All told, there were 16 lead changes and 14 ties before Minnesota’s fourth-quarter run put them up for good. 

Stats of the Game

  • 36: The Jazz missed 15 shots at the rim on Monday and also went just 3-for-24 in the area that stats site Cleaning the Glass calls “short mid” — essentially paint non-restricted, which tends to be floater zone for Utah. Add that together and that’s 36 missed shots in close by Jazz players in this one. No wonder their effective field goal percentage — 42.7% — was in just the seventh percentile of all games played by all teams this season. Utah’s inability to convert in close was absolutely the story of the game, and the reason things were close enough for KAT and the Wolves to take over late.
  • 82.5. That was the ORtg in Green’s 18 minutes. It was the lowest figure of any Jazz player, and his Net Rating of -19.9 was also the worst by a wide margin. Green was in fact so passive that he was called for a rare five-second violation during a very statis post-up possession early on. 

Line of the Game

Gobert had the best line on Utah’s side of the ledger, with 16 points on eight shots, plus 14 boards and near-perfect shooting from the line.

But this time, KAT got the better of the 2-time DPOY. He finished with 29 points, 15 boards, five assists, two steals and two blocks. 

Jeff Teague had 21 points and 11 assists.

Decisive Stretch

The Jazz came up empty on 10 of 12 possessions during the 23-4 Minnesota run.

Bogdanovic and Green missed jumpers, followed by a Gobert missed layup and consecutive misfires by Mike Conley. Green then converted free throws after a Royce O’Neale steal, but then Bogey and Mitchell eached missed a jumper. Mitchell then made his stepback shot on the baseline, but would miss his next three shots while Bogey missed two more. It was about as bad of a 6-minute funk as the Jazz have had all season, a 1-for-13 mess.

Meanwhile, Minnesota at one point cashed in on nine straight possessions.

Highlight of the Game

Mudiay has this nifty move on a fast break in the late third quarter. Looks like he’s doing an impression of Chris Paul or prime Rajon Rondo here.

Social

Jersey probs? Some folks aren’t feeling too mellow about the yellow.

Quick Notes

  • Andrew Wiggins missed the game for Minney, and Jake Layman left after logging just 13 minutes. Fill-in starter Treveon Graham (who once attended fall camp with the Jazz) was 0-for-4. So Minnesota had to embrace the “next man up” mantra to get this one done on the road. Who was that next man? Kelan Martin. The undrafted rookie is on a two-way contract and averaging just 2.7 points for the Wolves this season, but exploded with a 6-for-7 night for 14 points and a +21.
  • Exum’s was understandably rusty in his season debut, but played mostly stout defense and had a nice moment or two. The highlight was when he used his elite speed to jump a passing lane and steal a pass in the backcourt, which he promptly took back for an emphatic dunk. Shortly afteward, he used his length to block a driving layup by Teague. He made a couple of nice dribble moves, but looked like he didn’t quite have the rhythm to finish in traffic. Still, an important milestone for Exum to shake some rust off while having some moments he can feel good about as he works his way back. He was the only reserve (and one of only two Jazz men, with O’Neale) to post a positive Net Rating for the evening.
  • Conley and Mitchell combined for 11-of-38 from the field in this one, not a great night by Utah’s starting backcourt.
  • Ingles knocked down his own trifecta from deep in this game, leaving him just two triples shy of catching Gordon Hayward for the No. 2 spot in franchise history. 
  • The all-time tally on Gobert-KAT duels is now 11-4 in favor of the Jazz center. Both guys are playing like top 10 players, per FiveThirtyEight’s RAPTOR WAR metric, which makes this rivalry that much more interesting. The two teams are divison rivals, and led by big men who are in some ways perfect foils for each other. This matchup has a lot of juice, especially if both teams are good going foward, which appears to be the case with Minnesota’s hot start.

Up Next

Run it back. The Jazz will face the same Timberwolves on Wednesday night, this time up in the Target Center. Then they have a back-to-back this weekend in Salt Lake City, as they play host to two injury-beleaguered clubs: the Warriors on Friday, the Pelicans on Saturday.

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