Salt City Seven: Crowder & the Jazz Get Going, Gobert’s Back, Road Stretch Looms & More

Jae had a nice week picking on his former teams. (Russ Isabella via USA Today)

The Salt City Seven drops every Monday throughout the regular season, with seven regular features meant to relive the week in Jazzland from various angles. Check in every Monday for the quotes, stats, plays and performances that tell the stories from the last 168 hours in the world of the Jazz.

An important quote from Jazz players/personnel from the week.

“They know. I’ll leave it at that”

-Jae Crowder, to ESPN’s Tim MacMahon, on whether he was trying to prove anything to his former team on Friday night

Other players probably had better weeks on an empirical level or contributed more in absolute terms, but no Jazzman had quite the week that Crowder had.

The Jazz forward played back-to-back solid games against his former teams, and got to exact some revenge in both. Utah beat his old Mavs squad on Wednesday and his old Celtics teammates on Friday, and in both games, Crowder hit some of the clinching shots and endeared himself to Jazz fans along the way.

Against Dallas, the team that traded for him on draft night in 2012, Crowder scored 14, including a jumper and a layup that basically put the Mavs away for good. His finger roll put the Jazz up 13 with 4:00 to go, essentially ending whatever slight scare Dallas’ late run had caused.

And against Boston — the team that salary-dumped him to Cleveland so they could sign former Jazz All-Star Gordon Hayward — he had a 20-6-4 line, and his last five minutes were huge. He hit a three, then dunked, then thread the needle on a pass to Rudy Gobert, then hit what his coach Quin Snyder called “the biggest shot of the game,” a three to make it an 8-point lead in the final minute. Along the way, he played to the crowd and helped get things spicy at Vivint SmartHome Arena.

Crowder’s performance against Boston was part of a collective Jazz effort that was actually a pretty good representation of how the Jazz have survived and thrived since Hayward’s departure. (If you thought we were going to get through this column without talking about it, sorry — can’t tell the story of this week without covering Hayward’s return to Salt Lake.) Not because Crowder outplayed Hayward, or because Joe Ingles outplayed Hayward, or anything like that. Hayward is clearly still working his way back to full strength, so don’t put much stock into comparing his stat lines with anybody else’s right now. But on the Jazz’s end of things, you saw exactly how they have replaced different aspects of what Hayward provided to the team.

They lucked out by having Donovan Mitchell turn into a primary offensive weapon this fast, replacing that aspect of their former star’s role. Filling in as the 6-foot-8 forward who knocks down shots and picks apart pick-and-roll defense, Ingles is a really good facsimile of his friend Hayward in those specific departments. And yes, Crowder, the player who once got upset with Celtic fans for openly rooting for Hayward over him, has assumed the part of Hayward’s job description that involves being the lynchpin to Utah’s 4-out lineups, someone who can score, rebound and bang around a bit.

So actually, they moved on from their All-Star forward by not asking anybody to replace him at all. They’re asking Mitchell to be Mitchell, Ingles to be Ingles and Crowder to be Crowder, and they’re trusting in that collective effect.

And we’ll come back to Crowder later in the SC7, too.

Stats that tell the story of the week or highlight an important trend or topic.

6.5

+14.8

Rudy Gobert is back to being just plain dominant. His net rating this past week was by far the best of the main minutes guys. Gobert’s plus-14.8 for the week is even more remarkable when you realize the team as a whole was a plus-2.9 for the past three games. Boston took just 21 shots at the rim all night on Friday, and made 13 of them. Dallas was 9-for-16 on Wednesday. After a rough defensive start, Utah is back to allowing the fourth-lowest percentage of attempts at the rim. In other words: he’s back.

#28

Utah is still taking the second most corner threes (as a % of FGA) in the league… and they’re still canning just 28.7 percent of them, good for third worst in the Association per CTG. If those shots begin to drop at even an average clip, Utah’s offense, already top-10, could look very different. Crowder and Ricky Rubio are each hitting 27 percent, Dante Exum is at 20 percent, and Donovan Mitchell has made just one of his nine corner three attempts. Yikes. The Jazz missed all nine corner three attempts against Toronto.

In the good-news category, all of those figures should progress to the mean. In the meantime, Derrick Favors has made four of his last eight threes after starting the season 0-for-6.

189-57

It’s ancient history now, but since it’s part of the SC7 week, let’s talk about Jazz-Raps for a minute. It showed why Snyder has been harping on transition defense: Toronto had an 189 ORtg after live defensive rebounds. Utah’s was 57 in the same scenario. CTG estimated that Toronto added 15.7 points per 100 possessions to their total for the night through transition play. It’s hard to win games against elite teams when giving up that many free points.

Breaking down the Xs and Os behind a Jazz score from the week.

Stagger with DHO

This week we’ll look at a simple action the Jazz use early in their plays: staggered screens with a dribble hand-off for a player coming out of the corner.

For this action, the Jazz will often have the ball handler give to a big at the top of the key and then run straight into a pindown screen for the guy in the corner. That guy will go over the pindown, then run past the big man for a DHO. They often use this set-up to get the ball in the hands of the player they want to have running the next action; but because there are multiple screens involved, often the defense cracks open a window and the Jazz just take immediate advantage.

Here are two examples from Wednesday’s win over Dallas. We’ll go reverse chronological and start with Alec Burks in the corner late in that game.

The Jazz could have run this just to get Burks the ball, but because DeAndre Jordan was playing so passively, all Gobert had to do to give Burks a little shooting space was re-screen to the outside. Burks is getting pretty consistent at these little pull-ups behind a screen, even though this one technically counts as a catch-and-shoot because he doesn’t put the ball on the floor after the handoff.

And, going back in time now, here’s what happens when the big man defending the DHO does try to get involved.

This is a slight variation because Crowder first gives to Rubio, but same basic set-up: Crowder sets a screen for Ingles in the corner, then Gobert hands the ball off as he sets the second screen. This time, though, Jordan commits to Ingles (however tepidly), so Gobert slips in right behind him for two easy points.

And when it doesn’t lead to an easy look for the guy coming out of the corner or a dunk for the rolling big, there’s always the first screener, who oftentimes has been left alone as the three defenders worry about the action heading into the paint. Look at how alone Crowder is by the time Ingles sends this pass to Gobert; another option is the kick-out there¹. Whatever the defense doesn’t cover, the Jazz will take and exploit it.

Keep an eye out for this stagger-with-DHO action coming out of the corners for Utah.

After each Jazz win, we dole out the imaginary honor to the game MVP or a memorable performer.

Jazz 117, Mavs 102: Donovan Mitchell

Gobert, AB and Mitchell all got some love here, and with good reason. Basically, I thought Gobert and DM were co-MVPs of this game. Gobert dominated both ends and was Utah’s go-to scorer early on, punishing some pretty laughable defense by Jordan. Meanwhile, Mitchell scored a fairly efficient 23 and had several oh-my passes in his seven assists. Often when I can’t decide in basketball/MVP terms I go to the “what will we remember a month from now about this game” criteria, and that’s where Mitchell pulled slightly ahead based on having a few of the game’s most memorable individual plays. I mean holy smokes, Don. AB (18 points, 4-for-5 from deep) was really good, too.

Jazz 123, Celtics 115: Joe Ingles

Crowder was a real contender here, for all the reasons listed above. A lot of the Twitter vote supported Jae, using words such as “narrative reasons,” “history” and “story line.” And believe me, the narrative stuff is part of what factors into a game ball. But how does Crowder get it for 20-6-5 on 15 shots when Joe was 27-5-7 on 14 shots? For that matter, how do you give it to Crowder for his three late buckets when Gobert had at least as many huge stops in the paint to close the game? (Gobert had 17 & 15, and absolutely owned the defensive paint and the glass.) Bottom line: these big games are always brutal because so many people contribute to them. Heck, you could go to Derrick Favors for all the putbacks, Mitchell for a steady 21 or Rubio for punishing the Celtics in midrange. Ultimately, the majority of voters (and I) thought that the game turned in Utah’s favor when Ingles had his can’t-miss stretch.

A quick look at the Jazz’s next seven nights of action.

Well here it comes.

After righting the ship with a pair of home wins, the Jazz are barely going to see Salt Lake for the next three weeks. They play just twice in the Viv in the next 12 games, and each time they’ll be in town for roughly a day before turning around to head elsewhere. The madness starts with a 4-in-6-nights stretch this week.

Monday: Utah at Memphis, 6:00 p.m. MT

• State of the Grizzlies: The healthy Grizzlies are good! They’re 7-4, and have won all five of their home games, most recently an OT thriller against Philly.
• Jazz-Grizz: Memphis has some sort of Jazz kryptonite, having already upset Snyder’s squad twice in Salt Lake City. Luckily for the visitors, they’ll be done with Memphis until March after this.
• Key for the Jazz: Two of the Jazz’s four worst offensive outings of the young season came at the hands of the Grizzlies’ smart defense. Utah’s going to have to execute crisply, and shooters are going to have to make shots.

Wednesday: Utah at Dallas, 6:30 p.m. MT

• State of the Mavericks: Dallas beat up on the Thunder-sans-Westbrook on Saturday and has won two of its last three.
• Jazz-Mavs: This is another team Utah has already faced twice, but they’re 2-0 in this case, with two of their four biggest winning margins of the year.
• Key for the Jazz: Dallas’ defense gave Utah a ton of jumpers down in Dallas, and then let Gobert get to the rim whenever he wanted last week in Salt Lake.

Friday: Utah at Philadelphia, 5:00 p.m. MT

• State of the Sixers: Throw out everything you knew about Philly; their team just got a massive makeover when they won the Jimmy Butler sweepstakes on Sunday morning.
• Jazz-76ers: Philly swept last year’s season series, which probably didn’t sit too well with a certain Rookie of the Year runner-up.
• Key for the Jazz: Butler’s arrival will make Philly even tougher defensively, so Utah is going to need its attackers — guys like Mitchell and even Burks and Dante Exum off the bench — to be aggressive and smart.

Saturday: Utah at Boston, 5:30 p.m. MT

• State of the Celtics: Boston just wrapped up a 1-4 trip, and will also be on a back-to-back on Saturday after facing Toronto at home.
• Jazz-Cs: Utah took round one in their gym on Friday, but expect a tougher matchup in Beantown — especially since Kyrie Irving should be playing in this one.
• Key for the Jazz: This will be their fourth game in six nights, so if they’re still standing at the end, that’s a good start. Seriously though, this game will have a different feel with Irving playing. The Jazz defense’s primary task will be scheming for Uncle Drew.

Tracking the wild Western Conference postseason race and the Jazz’s place in it.

Instead of rehashing the percentages and projections (FiveThirtyEight currently has Utah back in a second-place tie with OKC), let’s do a quick scan of the competition.

• The Thunder are 7-1 since losing four straight to open. Some of that is a softer schedule, but the stretch includes a trouncing of the Rockets, a home win over the Pels, and a road win against a decent Charlotte team.
• Houston is a mess: 5-7 and already talking about how to move on from Carmelo Anthony, per reports.
• The Nuggets are really good. They’ve lost three straight and four overall, but only the Brooklyn loss requires explanation.
• The Blazers are once again outplaying their projections. They’ve won seven of eight, but like Utah, they’re about to be tested with a six-game road trip.
• The Lakers and Pelicans are both tracking to be just over .500 teams.
• We’ll see if getting the Butler cloud out from over their heads helps the T-Wolves play better. They were smart about the timing: they play 10 of their next 12 at home, which might help them show fans a decent record in the immediate post-trade aftermath.
• The Clippers, Kings, Spurs and Grizzlies are all over .500, but projection models have them all finishing outside the top eight. We’ll see, though. Memphis in particular has a lot of early quality wins.

Because after all, we’re here to have fun.

As promised, let’s go back to Crowder.

One of the more pleasant moments of the week came when Snyder approached Crowder for a big bear hug at the close of Jazz-Celtics. Snyder obviously got why that was a meaningful game for Crowder, and the moment was eerily reminiscent of the embrace that the coach shared with Mitchell after the latter willed the Jazz to a Game 6 victory over Oklahoma City last spring.

And Mitchell, who knows what that moment of coachly love feels like, had a little something to say about it.

This ain’t normal man! This is genuine love right here and is the reason we will always fight for Coach Quin 🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾 @CJC9BOSS @rudygobert27 https://t.co/B15ijI03A7

— Donovan Mitchell (@spidadmitchell) November 10, 2018

Snyder described his impulse to hug Crowder after his big night: “Jae deserves emotion from other people because he gives so much of it. He’s got a heartbeat you can feel, and he gives that to our team.”

That’s it for this week. We’ll be back with more next Monday, and in the meantime, here are links to the first three weeks‘ SC7 columns.