Salt City Seven: Defense is Back, DM Lauds the Bigs, Playoff Race & More

The Salt City Seven drops every week 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.

The Jazz are getting back to their defensive identity, and their star sophomore has a theory as to why: the team’s big men Rudy Gobert and Derrick Favors are playing phenomenally well.

“You start to get teams flustered a little bit… We were pursuing and pursuing, and we just kept pushing. That’s what you want: you want to be able to just kind of aggravate teams. It’s so easy when you’ve got big fella down there doing what he does and Fav is playing out of this world.”

-Donovan Mitchell, via the Salt Lake Tribune’s Twitter feed, on how Utah has been frustrating teams on the defensive end

Over the past 11 games, Utah’s defense has been the best in the league. They’ve been getting under opponents’ skin, protecting the rim, blocking shots and closing out the possession with an elite rebound rate. It’s no coincidence that over that same 11-game stretch, only one team — the red hot Houston Rockets — have won more games than Utah’s eight¹. He has blocked 32 shots over that stretch — Utah leads the league with a 7.5-percent block percentage over that span — and his averages last week of 17 points and 16 rebounds earned him his first ever Western Conference Player of the Week award.

And yet, Gobert’s on-court defensive rating over the last 11 still isn’t the best on the team. It’s not even the second best. Or the third best. It’s… *gulp*… the worst.

There’s obviously a ton of context behind that number. Gobert has had to guard Anthony Davis, Steven Adams, Giannis Antetokounmpo, and Karl-Anthony Towns. Jonas Valanciunas gives Gobert some problems because he can deploy his strength down low and also use his skill out in space. The Stifle Tower has also had to play against small-ball lineups (in the Phoenix and LAC games, for example) that force him to do different things.

So there are plenty of reasons why his D-rating over this 11-game slice isn’t really alarming at all. But it is noticeable to see him come in dead last over a stretch that is equal to an eighth of the season. And it underscores how lucky the Jazz are to have another starter-caliber center to lean on for whatever they need on a given night.

Enter Favors.

“Fav is a different animal right now,” Mitchell told the Trib earlier on in a separate conversation. “He’s been doing his thing — he’s rebounding, he’s been running the floor, getting dunks. That rubs off on everybody else.”

Favors is averaging 14 and 9 over the last 11 outings, along with two blocks and a rotation-best D-rating of 90.3. It’s not like this is the first time Favors has put up that type of raw output — after all, he averaged 15 and 8 over a three-year span after he became the full-time starter. But he’s never impacted the game quite as much as he is right now.

In fact, here’s a finding that makes absolutely no sense, but is true nonetheless: over this 8-3 stretch, Utah is -5.7 per 100 possessions when Favors and Gobert play together, +0.9 when Gobert plays without Favors… and +22.9 when Favors plays without Gobert.

So Favors is doing more than just complementing Gobert over this stretch — he’s actually outplaying him, at least on macro terms.

If we narrow the sample to just the last week, Gobert’s (+16.0) and Favors’ (+17.2) solo impact are much closer, but you still get the picture here. Gobert is doing amazing things, garnering recognition and striking fear into the hearts of NBA players everywhere… and yet Favors may quietly be the real catalyst behind this recent surge.

Most general managers would sacrifice a limb to get one defensive anchor of that level. Utah has two, and they’ve gotten their club back to playing elite defense just in time for the playoffs.Their shot defense has been superb over the last week because they’ve been able to force teams to take the shots they want to allow.

Overall, Utah is back in the top three for their season-long defensive rating, and it seems extremely unlikely that they’ll fall out of that range, especially given the fact that their average remaining opponent record is .400. The Jazz need to live in that top-3 territory, as that’s their best shot to win ball games. That’s even more true heading into the playoffs, especially as injury luck has dealt another blow to one of their primary off-the-bounce creators. (We’ll talk more about that in the numbers section.)

 

664

At least for now, that’s where Dante Exum’s season minute total will be stuck. Exum is yet again unavailable due to rotten injury luck — this time in the form of a partial tear in his right patellar tendon. That’s a different knee than the one that was reconstructed after an ACL tear that followed Exum’s rookie season, but it marks the fourth major injury of his career: the left ACL, the shoulder dislocation from last year, the ankle injury and bone bruise that interrupted maybe his best stretch as a pro so far, and now this.

It’s frustrating. No doubt about it. But if you’re frustrated, imagine how upset Exum must be. That’s why there’s a wrong way and a right way to respond to player injuries. Don’t blame the player. Don’t declare without any medical knowledge that he’s done. Basically, just don’t be a jerk. NBA players aren’t Game of Thrones characters, imaginary beings that exist solely for you to speculate about and judge. They’re human beings, and at the core of this really crummy news is a 23-year-old kid who wishes he could play basketball. If you’re looking for the right way to respond on a human level, Quin Snyder, Favors and especially Kyle Korver all nailed it with their heartfelt and empathetic reactions.

18%

Exum’s absence is going to put even more pressure on starting guard Ricky Rubio to work his way back into some kind of rhythm. And Rubio has made just 10 of his last 55 shots (18%), including four of his last 18 from three (22%).

Both Rubio and Raul Neto are smart and resourceful playmakers in pick-and-roll situations, but neither can attack switches or puncture the defense quite like Exum does. Against switching defenses that the Jazz will undoubtedly see in the playoffs, Exum and Mitchell are the only two Jazz men capable of beating most switches 1-on-1. Rubio and Neto usually need a pick in order to be able to break the paint, and the two of them are really going to need to be able to put pressure on the defense if Utah is going to survive in the playoffs with Mitchell as their lone isolation threat.

That’s why I said last week that I felt like the Jazz would have a hard time advancing without Exum. The caveat to that is that Rubio could help Utah by suddenly channeling the version of himself that carved up defenses and knocked down shots over the latter half of the 2017-18 season. Mitchell will no doubt continue to pile on points, but defenses will pressure him with the ball if nobody else can flatten the defense on their own. And that means Rubio, especially, is going to have to force defenses to play him honestly by hitting shots.

 

Saturday’s game against Brooklyn featured numerous highlight-reel plays, but it also featured a lot of smart offense where the Jazz used Brooklyn’s defensive schemes against them. Here are two quick examples.

This gets Favors a bucket because of his great seal and a smart read by Mitchell, but it’s actually designed for Joe Ingles. Take a look.

As the Jazz sometimes do against non-shooting threats, Brooklyn was aggressive about having Jarrett Allen not guard Gobert. Look at how much room Allen leaves him. So the Jazz called plays with Gobert setting off-ball screens as a way to punish that approach. After all, if Allen is sagging off him, then he’s not in position to help on a screen! The Warriors do this often when teams leave Draymond Green, having him set a screen for Steph Curry while the D has no big man to show.

The play starts with a UCLA screen, a pick set by a guard for a big man coming across the paint. This action should be familiar to fans of the Stockton-to-Malone era, as the Jazz used that action thousands of times to get Malone deep post position. But based Mitchell’s position at the top of the key and the rest of the play action, it’s obvious that this is actually for Joe. The idea here is that Ingles’ man will help protect the bucket, and therefore be late to follow Joe to the perimeter when he uses the subsequent pindown from Gobert. And since Allen is playing off Gobert, he won’t be in a position to help, resulting in an open Ingles three. Watch the play again and this time just keep an eye on Ingles; this is clearly a ploy to turn the Nets’ sagging defense into an open Joe jumper. 

But instead, Ingles’ guy doesn’t help over the top of the UCLA screen, and Favors does a good job keeping his own guy on his back. Mitchell recognizes this and zips the ball directly to Favors. This was a great play design, great execution by all four guys involved in the action, and a great read by Mitchell to short-circuit the play when he saw a better outcome develop.

Then there was this play, where the Jazz turned Brooklyn’s zone defense against them.

Positioning is key when attacking the zone, so Mitchell starts right between the two high defenders, and Royce O’Neale positions himself at the angle right, exactly where he knows he’ll pull over one of those high defenders. Gobert screens the other one, and just like that, Mitchell is open. That’s all it took: good initial spacing, one pass to the wing, and one well-timed screen.

Whatever Brooklyn tried, Utah was ready with something in the playbook that would turn the scheme against itself. Whether punishing the sagging big with layered actions or shifting the zone with smart space-and-pass offense, Utah was ready.

 

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

Jazz 114, Suns 97: Derrick Favors

Poor DeAndre Ayton just had no idea what to do with either one of Favors and Gobert, let alone both. Game ball could have gone to either one, or to Mitchell for his 24 and for pouring in bunch late to seal things. And Gobert’s case was that monster line — 18 & 20! — plus the fact that Suns players shot 1-for-7 combined when Gobert was primarily guarding them. I just thought this was such a unique game for Favors. He had 18-7-7, and per Inpredictable, he and Ingles had the biggest impact on the Jazz’s odds of winning. This is a little bit of narrative/feel over raw production (Gobert was probably the game MVP, if we’re honest), but that’s allowed sometimes.

Jazz 120, Wolves 100: Donovan Mitchell

When the Jazz pulled away with a 20-8 run, Mitchell scored nine of those dagger points, including a clinching three and an exclamation point dunk. But there were a lot of candidates here. Favors and Crowder had it all night. Gobert shut down KAT and ultimately fouled him out. Ingles and Rubio each had eight assists. Ultimately though, giving this one to Don spreads out the love among the three guys who were, honestly, the Jazz MVPs this week.

Jazz 114, Nets 98: Rudy Gobert

Gobert simply dominated. It was never close after Gobert powered a 27-2 run by simply deciding he wouldn’t allow the visiting Nets to score. He also contributed 23 points, 17 boards and three blocks. Mitchell hit the dagger (see above) and had a great all-around game, and Favors and Jae Crowder were both timely contributors. But no need to overcomplicate this one.

 

We’re coming right down to it.

OKC and Denver play literally half of their remaining games against elite teams. For Denver, that means that catching GSW (with a cushy schedule) is probably a long shot, and they need to watch for Houston creeping up. 

After that, the West once again has that anything-can-happen feel to it. Three through eight are separated by four in the L column.

But just be realistic about those gaps: these teams are mostly winning right now. In fact, no Western playoff team lost at all last week unless it was to another playoff team.

Just like last week, the Jazz have a 4-in-6-nights stretch on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday. 

Monday: Utah at Washington, 5:00 p.m. MT 

• State of the Wiz: Add this to the list of games where the Jazz get a lotto team right when they’re starting to play well. The Wizards were 3-1 last week, which helped Bradley Beal (consecutive 40+ games) win Player of the Week out east.
• Jazz-Wiz: How is it possible that the Jazz haven’t faced the Wiz yet? They’ll see each other in the capital on Monday, and then 11 days later the rematch is slated for Salt Lake.
• Key for the Jazz: Defend the 3-point line. Beal had 16 threes in the last two games combined, and the Wiz also have Trevor Ariza as a spot-up threat and even Bobby Portis as a pick-and-pop big. Without some outlier-type shooting from those guys, Utah should be able to dictate.

Wednesday: Utah at New York, 5:30 p.m. MT

• State of the Knicks: The Knicks are… bad. They’ve had losing streaks this season of 5, 6, 5, 8, 18 and 8. That said, they occasionally catch lightning in a bottle. Their last win, after all came at LeBron James’ expense.
• Jazz-Knicks: Utah dealt the Knicks a 32-point smackdown, behind a 25-and-16 night from Gobert and 13 assists from (shed a tear) Exum. 
• Key for the Jazz: Several player are gone from that December tilt, including Tim Hardaway Jr. who led the Jazz in scoring. If the Jazz keep playing defense the way they have been, they’ll be in good shape. But the Knicks have some streaky guys who will get going if Utah treats this as a get-off-the-bus-and-win game.

Thursday: Utah at Atlanta, 7:30 p.m. MT

• State of the Hawks: The Hawks try hard most nights, and have some intriguing young pieces. But they don’t have the talent up and down their roster to win consistently. They have lost five of seven. 
• Jazz-Hawks: The Hawks memorably swept the Jazz last season, and Ricky Rubio made sure they wouldn’t this time around by dropping 22 points and 11 assists in the lone meeting between the teams in February.. 
• Key for the Jazz: Atlanta is third in the league in creating rim attempts, and fifth at finding threes. They just don’t usually make enough of them. Trae Young in particular is a high-variance guy. He has shot under 25 percent from three 29 times, and the Hawks are 4-25 in those games.

Saturday: Utah at Chicago, 6:00 p.m. MT

• State of the Bulls: The Bulls had a nice mini-surge after the trade deadline brought them Otto Porter Jr., winning six of nine. Since then, they’ve come back down to earth with a 1-7 stretch.
• Jazz-Bulls: The Jazz needed a late run and 34-6-6 from Mitchell to pull away from the Bulls on January 12. Now, they’ll face a new-look Chicago club that includes Porter, a rumored Jazz target.
• Key for the Jazz: It could be that the NBA just needed some time to adjust to Porter in red: during their post-deadline spurt, he averaged 20-and-6 on 52 percent shooting. Since then, he’s 15-and-5 on 43 percent. In other words: the Jazz need to stop Otto.

 

After a week that included some tense moments, inappropriate behavior and awkward follow-up conversation, it was nice to end it on a note of unity.

📓| “To have two playoff teams go out there and step aside and take a moment for something that’s bigger than basketball, it shows where we are today and where we are as teams and as a league. It was important for us to do this and I’m glad we did it.”

» https://t.co/ycmuGKzsfz

— Utah Jazz (@utahjazz) March 17, 2019

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That will do it this week. Seven more juicy bits of Jazz next Monday.