Salt City Seven: Mike Drop, Improving Chemistry, Jazz Back in Fourth & More

March 9th, 2020 | by Dan Clayton

Conley & the Jazz are back on the same page, back to winning. (Chris Schwegler via espn.com)

Every week here at SCH begins with the Salt City Seven: seven regular features that let us relive the biggest moments, key performances and hot issues in Jazzland from various angles. Check in every week 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 or personnel from the week

“Finally things are starting to turn a corner.”

-Jazz guard Mike Conley

You don’t need this columnist to tell you that the Jazz’s last six weeks have been a roller coaster ride with high peaks and deep valleys both in terms of their emotional state and their execution level. Their game log shows nothing but streaky outcomes since late January, leading to this latest positive surge, a 5-game win streak that included four on the road last week.

For Conley and others on the team, the latest uptick in team performance feels a bit more real.

“I think our chemistry is getting better,” the veteran guard told the Salt Lake Tribune.

He could very well be right. The nice thing about this streak is that there hasn’t really been anything fluky about it. Over the last five games, the Jazz’s main guys have pretty much been who they are. It hasn’t been one guy struggling while another picks up the slack, or a possessional tug-of-war between Utah’s myriad ball handlers. Sure, guys have had single off nights during this stretch, but on the aggregate, nobody has had to carry the team while another guy was ice cold. 

Source: stats.nba.com

There’s nothing unsustainable about any of those stats. Sure, Joe Ingles’ usage over this stretch could have been higher — it was 10.3% during the streak, down from his season figure of 14.9%. And Royce O’Neale’s shot has been a little bit frigid. But by and large, what you see over the Jazz last five wins is a bit more of a healthy ecosystem taking shape.

It comes as no surprise that the team is finally congealing just as Conley himself is finding a great rhythm. Ever since the club dealt for the savvy offensive engineer last summer, Utah’s ceiling has been tied to his play. But tagging the team’s mercurial results to Conley alone would be inaccurate. He’s actually been really good since he rejoined the starting lineup at the start of February.

“I don’t wanna hear no more Mike Conley slander,” rotation forward Georges Niang famously declared after Friday’s win in Boston. “I’m out. Mic drop!”

Niang’s exhortation came after what could perhaps be considered Conley’s best all-around performance as a Jazzman. He was a flamethrower in Boston, dropping 25 points to go with five dimes and three steals. But more than that, it was his command of the floor. A group of four reserves and Conley orchestrated the first-half run that put Utah ahead for good. But even more that seminal night in Beantown, Conley has quietly been solid since returning to the starting unit.

Frequent SC7 readers know this because it’s something we’ve been harping on weekly in this space. Conley is now up to rounded averages of 17-4-5 (that’s points, rebounds, assists) since February 1, when Quin Snyder restored his starter status. He’s converted 44.6% of his threes during that span, and his overall true shooting is .600. Combine that with the 19-4-4 he averaged for nearly a month before his leg acted up in November, and it’s clear that Conley’s struggles have been a bit exaggerated, at least when he’s healthy and in his regular role.

“I feel good, man. I feel really good. I’m in a great place,” Conley said on Friday.

That said, he knows that it’s the team’s performance that matters — and he definitely heard the chatter while the Jazz spent the last six weeks alternating between win streaks and frustrating skids.

“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. I just kinda have to sit back and let people say what they want to say until it starts to work.”

It’s been working lately, to the tune of five straight wins. Now Conley and crew will try to prevent the same wild swings in execution and bitter chasers that have followed each of their previous two win streaks. It won’t be easy; four of their next six opponents are teams with top-10 NBA records.

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

Things got even more fun in the wild Western Conference playoff picture this week, thanks to unbudgeted losses by the likes of Denver and Houston. That led to a bit of a shakeup in this week’s updated playoff race graphic.

Utah and OKC took advantage of Houston’s slide. (Click to enlarge)

The Jazz’s five straight wins — couple with some untimely losses by Houston — have moved Utah back into control of a homecourt seed. Utah also still technically controls its own destiny for the No. 3 seed, since they trail Denver by just one loss but have two games remaining against the Nuggets.

Utah’s and Denver’s remaining schedules are eerily similar. Both resume play on Monday when Eastern Conference elites visit them on the latter half of back-to-backs. Both still have two games left against the fifth-place Thunder, although both of Utah’s matchups are on the road. Both still have to visit division rival Portland, as well as the elite Lakers, solid Mavs and playoff hopeful Spurs. Both teams will still host the Clippers, Bulls, Grizzlies and Spurs once. Utah has an extra home game against the Lakers, Denver has an extra visit to Toronto. We’ll call those roughly even.

So outside of those 12 roughly similar games and the two remaining head-to-head matchups, what’s the difference? 

  • Utah will visit Phoenix, and host the Pels, Wolves, Hawks and Cavs. All of those are teams currently on track for the lottery1
  • Denver will Chicago, Golden State and playoff-bound Miami, and host the seventh-place Mavs and surging Kings.

In other words, Utah has a real shot at catching Denver. Remember, though, they’ll have to pass them, not just tie them; Denver’s 4.5-game advantage in division record all but guarantees they’ll own the tiebreaker, even if Utah evens the season series with wins on April 5 and April 14.

Stats that tell the story of the week or highlight a timely topic

83.5

More evidence that the Jazz are remembering who they are: the defense is coming back. They’ve held each of their last five opponents under the 100 mark for halfcourt ORtg, per Cleaning the Glass. The NBA mean is 94.4, so the 100 mark shouldn’t necessarily be the indicator of a functioning halfcourt defense, but since eight of Utah’s previous 12 opponents had exceeded that mark, it signals progress. The Jazz were roughly average in halfcourt defensive settings against the Wiz (96.6) and Cavs (95.1), had a minor defensive hiccup against the Knicks (98.9), and then had two of their better defensive outings of the calendar year in Boston (83.5) and Detroit (85.1). That’s just halfcourt numbers — transition defense still continues to be an issue, at least intermittently. But they’re getting some of their mojo back in set defensive settings.

0:00

That’s the total amount of time that the Jazz trailed during the fourth quarters of their five recent wins. Detroit did tie them up briefly (the score was 79-79 for 58 seconds in the fourth quarter), but Utah has not trailed at all in fourth periods since they lost to Boston on February 26.

.775

OK, Tony Bradley, we see you! We haven’t talked about Bradley much in this column all year, except to kvetch about bench units that bled points during certain stretches. But the third-year big man has been solid lately, including with elite .775 true shooting over the win streak. He (+23.8) and Jordan Clarkson (+28.8) have the team’s best Net Ratings during the streak, the result of multiple runs that happened while Utah’s Conley-and-subs lineups were on the court. He still is nowhere near the rim deterrent that Rudy Gobert is, but his movement has been better in pick-and-roll defense, too. And he’s been gobbling up rebounds, including nearly a fifth (19.1%) of reboundable Jazz misses.

30+

Bojan Bogdanovic’s 32-point outburst in Detroit marked his 11th game of 30-plus this season, and Donovan Mitchell already has had 18 such games. It’s been more than 30 years since two Jazz players had 10 or more 30-plus scoring games in the same season. The only Utah Jazz duo to ever complete the feat before: Adrian Dantley and Darrell Griffith. They did it in the 1984-85 season (with 21 and 16 such games, respectively) and in 1982-83 (16 and 13)2. What Bogey and Mitchell are doing as a scoring tandem is pretty historic stuff — and they still have 19 games left.

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

Conley’s version of the search dribble

It’s pretty clear that part of what has allowed Conley to get back into a such a nice rhythm is having the ball in his hands more.

“That’s kinda like where I’ve made my name, is in the pick-and-roll,” Conley said in that same interview with the Trib’s Eric Walden that we referenced above. “Being able to read coverages and try to exploit the things they’re doing, going under and over screens.”

Conley is really a wizard when he gets to the middle of the floor with an active dribble. The lefty shooter is great at finishing with both hands, and he always drives with his eyes out, waiting for any defender anywhere on the court to lean just a few degrees in the wrong direction. He has long had a reputation as one of the league’s best tacticians if he can get to the “nail” — the middle of the free throw line — with the ball.

Teams load up on Conley on pick-and-rolls to the middle of the court for that very reason, but the Jazz have found a nifty counter. Instead, they’ll run an outside P&R, which often the opponent will defend with “drop big” defense. But then Conley will hang a sharp right after the roll man has cleared the space, and he’ll dribble across the top of the lane and wait for someone to make a mistake.

Steve Nash pioneered the baseline search dribble, to the extent that most NBA teams now refer to it as “Nashing.” Well this right here might as well be called “Conleying.” He’s not quite snaking the pick, he’s just veering to the middle so that he has all of his options available to him as the defense shifts and scoots to account for a rolling big and multiple spot shooters. Chris Paul is also good at this type of search dribble across the FT line extended, because he always has the backup option of his elite midrange pull-up. In Conley’s case, it’s his repertoire of righty paint finishes that affords him the freedom to scurry in there with a full menu of options (and the defenders’ respect).

And if teams try to take that route away from him? No problem. Watch what happens when a Knick tries to force him baseline instead of letting him work his way to the nail.

This is the Conley that has been picking apart defenses for a decade, the one that the Jazz were thrilled to add to their roster. Take something away, and he’ll still find a way to beat you, or at the very least generate a good shot that the Jazz will happily live or die with. This is Michael Alex Conley Jr., pick-and-roll wizard. 

After each Jazz win, Twitter helps us decide who was that game’s MVP or most memorable performer

Game Ball headquarters was a busy place this week, as the Jazz went 4-0 since we last convened to dole out the leather.

Jazz 126, Cavs 113: Rudy Gobert. Bogey has a solid case, too. He really paced the Jazz with his scoring throughout, and we really should reward the all-around night (28-7-6, plus really solid post defense on Kevin Love). Gobert was just too good. His 20 points came on 8-for-9 shooting, plus he controlled the paint even against a team that has some unique matchup issues for him. Four of his five blocks came during the second half, including one where he scared Collin Sexton off a shot at the right elbow and then made it all the way back to the left side of the rim to block Love. He just physically overwhelmed everybody. Cavs players shot 6-for-22 when Gobert was primarily guarding them. 

Jazz 112, Knicks 104: Rudy Gobert. As Andy Larsen wrote, this whole game really came down to Utah exploiting New York’s fear of Gobert. They just didn’t have anybody who could handle him, which why he barrelled to 18 points and 14 rebounds on 7-for-8 shooting. Defensively, this was another unique matchup, and Julius Randle did get Gobert a few times by using his thick body to neutralize the shot-challenging Frenchman. But Rudy got the last laugh — with the win and also individually. After Randle had been vocal about his paint success against the big fella, Gobert scored a transition layup on Randle and drew the foul, and he let the opponent hear all about it, celebrating right in the Knick forward’s face. That 3-point play sparked a 12-2 Utah run that put the game out of reach. Also considered: Bogdanovic was smooth and efficient on his way to 23, and Mitchell always does fun stuff in MSG.

Jazz 99, Celtics 94: Mike Conley. A unanimous choice by the Twitter peeps, so no need to belabor this one: 25 points, five assists, three steals, and quite possibly his best floor game of the season as he led game-swinging runs by the second unit. Clarkson (17 points) was also really good off the bench.

Jazz 111, Pistons 105: Bojan Bogdanovic. A close runner-up on Monday and Wednesday, Bogey left no doubt in Detroit. A historic (see “By the Numbers”) 32 points to go with five boards. More importantly, he put his repertoire on display: with so many ball handlers, Bogdanovic gets the luxury of spending long stretches as a defense-bender with Kyle Kover-like gravity, but he can also create off the bounce or play either roll in pick-and-roll. Plus he did well enough when asked to guard the much larger Christian Wood.

A quick look ahead at Utah’s next seven nights of action.

The Jazz once again have a 4-in-6-nights on their plate this week, but three of those four games will be in their mountain fortress. That said, the lone road date is a biggie.

Monday 3/9, Jazz vs. Raptors: The Jazz are fortunate to get the elite Raptors on the second end of a West-to-East back-to-back, and Sacramento even helped them by keeping Sunday’s game close so that Toronto’s principals had to expend the extra physical and mental energy before flying into a time zone change. That said, Toronto is 6-3 on back-to-backs this year, and the league’s second best defense should be able to muck up the game just enough to make the home team comfortable. Fren VanVleet and Marc Gasol are both questionable for Monday’s game, although the latter did play against the Kings.

Wednesday 3/11, Jazz @ Thunder: This is a really important game, especially since the Jazz lost a home game earlier in the year, so now they need to win either this one or on April 13 in order to avoid dropping the season series. A big key to Utah’s win in the season opener was keeping Dennis Schroder in check (just 3 points, 1-for-8 shooting). The German guard had a game-high 27 in the sequel, so that’s going to be a key in the two remaining games, both in the Sooner State. OKC is 17-5 since mid January, and is just a game and a half behind Utah in the question for homecourt. They don’t play between now and Wednesday, so they’ll also have a rest advantage.

Friday 3/13, Jazz vs. Pelicans: DERRICK FAVORS’ HOMECOMING! The beloved big man was shelved due to injury the last time the Pels were in Salt Lake, which makes this Friday’s contest his first back at The Viv since Utah moved his contract to go after Bogdanovic. Favors has been playing great basketball lately, averaging 10 & 10 with a +15 Net Rating since New Orleans started their climb with a win over Boston on January 26. The Pels are 11-7 since then, and are just four games out of the playoffs. With a healthy Zion Williamson, a lot of people think they’ll get there.

Saturday 3/14, Jazz vs. Grizzlies: Ja Morant was spectacular in Memphis’ November win against the Jazz, but in retrospect, that probably wasn’t as big of an upset as it seemed then. The Grizz have proved to be a solid team, and have beaten every other Western Conference playoff team at least once. They’re still without Jaren Jackson Jr., but Heat transplant Justise Winslow is currently on a rehab assignment in the G League, which could mean his return to action is imminent. Former Jazz rookie Grayson Allen also remains out, as does Brandon Clarke.

Because after all, following a basketball team is supposed to be fun

Call it my #eastcoastbias, but I’m here for all of the content about Westchester County native Mitchell coming home to MSG as a full-fledged NBA star.

Just 19 to go. This is getting fun.

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