Salt City Seven: Passing and Execution Are Key, Scary Gobert, Two Convincing Wins & More

The Jazz are best when they play collectively. (Melissa Majchrzak via utahjazz.com)

Every week here at SCH begins with the Salt City Seven: a regular feature for each day of the week as we 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 or about Jazz players or personnel during the week.

“When you can’t get a bucket, it’s hard to get stops — and vice versa.”

-Jazz guard Ricky Rubio, explaining Utah’s Sunday loss in San Antonio to the Salt Lake Tribune, but also representing perfectly the club’s current dichotomy

In a week that included two convincing blowout wins against quality teams, we start with the Sunday loss, only because the issue Rubio describes here is essentially the bellwether that determines how the Jazz will play on a given night.

In fact, the Spanish guard wasn’t the only person to point to a lack of ball movement as the factor that turned the tide in Utah’s 110-97 loss at the AT&T Center.

“We started the game well, the defense was good and we were moving the ball, but the second quarter the ball stopped moving,” Rudy Gobert told the Deseret News. “They really gained confidence from that.”

The relationship between Utah’s offensive execution and its ability to wield an elite defensive identity has basically been the key to winning and losing games for a season and a half now. When the Jazz execute with force, they get quality shots. When they make shots, their opponent has to face their halfcourt defense. When opponents face their set defense, the Jazz are mighty hard to beat. By contrast, when they fail to execute to generate good, open shots and take them in rhythm, the whole equation becomes harder as they scramble to defend off of live misses, where they’re far from elite.

Utah allows 92.9 points per 100 halfcourt possessions¹, per Cleaning the Glass. They allow 112.8 after a live miss on offense, and 133.9 after a live turnover. So the key to getting back to an elite overall defense really is better offensive execution.

This week proved that connection.

• Against San Antonio, Utah made 30 of 46 uncontested looks (65.2%). As a result, they were able to force the Spurs to play against their halcourt defense 88 percent of the time. The result was a 101 DRtg, their ninth best of the year.
• Against Houston, Utah shot slightly worse on uncontested looks: 30-for-62, or 48.4%. Consequently, Houston did get out and run more than the Spurs did, but Utah held them to just .79 points per transition possession, one of the worst figures of the NBA season. At 89.9, it was Utah’s third best defensive output of the year.
• At San Antonio, Utah made just 21 of 50 unconested looks (42%). The Spurs scored a ridiculous 300 points per 100 possessions after live steals², and 133 off of Jazz misses. It was Utah’s 10th worst defensive night of the year.

That’s the story of the week. Execution leads to defense leads to wins. Poor execution leads to worse defense leads to losses.

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

54.5%

Speaking of not moving the ball enough, that figure is Donovan Mitchell’s fourth-quarter usage percentage against the Spurs. That is… too much. That means that while Mitchell was on the court, he was basically using the possessions of nearly three players. The Jazz need Mitchell to be aggressive, but he also needs to trust in the way the team generates buckets through ball movement and advantage basketball. On Sunday, he had several 0-pass possessions. For the season, his clutch usage is up to 40.7 percent, even though his clutch true shooting is down to .405. I know the Jazz want him to be assertive and avoid second-guessing himself, but it might be time to start talking about how he and the team create shots in those situations. Especially since every other Jazz player with significant clutch minutes has a TS% of .500 or better.

“We just didn’t execute down the stretch,” Mitchell confessed to the DNews.

99%

But wait, it wasn’t all bad.

Utah also had two really convincing, quality wins against good teams at home. In lapping the Spurs on Tuesday night, Utah managed an overall effective field goal percentage of .697, better than 99 percent of all shooting performances by all teams this season. And then against Houston, they held the Rockets offense to 78.6 on halfcourt possessions and on transition possessions, in both cases better than 99% of all defensive performances. 

38

Everybody loved talking about Utah’s franchise record 20 threes against San Antonio on Tuesday. But to me, the real key to success in that game was the sharing. It was just the second time in exactly nine years that the Jazz had 38+ assists, and all 13 Jazz players had at least one.

#3

For more evidence on how Gobert is “back to being scary,” the Jazz are back to being in the top three in deterring rim attempts. They’re also generating the fifth-most rim attempts for themselves, and converting the fourth-highest percentage on them. Gobert and Derrick Favors have been phenomenal lately.

15.4%

The Rockets to whom Dante Exum was tagged as a primary defender throughout the course of Thursday night shot just 2-for-13. He was really locked in on defense, frustrating even Chris Paul and James Harden into ill-advised misses. His DRtg for the night was an insane 74.5, and he helped Utah extend the lead during both of his non-garbage time stints. That makes his Sunday night even more puzzling; against the Spurs, Exum seemed unsure of the schemes and made enough defensive mistakes in 2:25 of play that he got called back to the sideline and didn’t return. That’s what the learning process looks like for a guy whose devlopment has been constantly interrupted by injuries. But I wouldn’t worry too much about it — as I’ve written recently, the Jazz are taking the long view with Exum.

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

Gorgeous BLOB play: baseline flare DHO

We’re giving Kyle Korver a starring role here again, because this play was just too cool not to include. Quin Snyder is going to have so much fun drawing stuff up for Korver.

Rudy Gay is clearly responsible for protecting the basket here, and Jae Crowder does a good job of committing Gay when he cuts toward the baseline with his hand up like he’s calling for the ball. But then he sneaks around to set a baseline flare screen for Korver. Gay never reacts to that screen, and it’s not clear if he’s supposed to since he’s protecting the rim. If Gay had jumped out to help on that screen, Jae just has to slip the pick and Korver delivers him the ball for a layup.

So Gay stays home, Marco Belinelli gets wiped out by the Crowder screen, and Jakob Poeltl steps to the high side of Favors’ screen to show on Korver so he can’t curl into the lane. But that’s a mistake, as the sum total of those decisions results in Korver finding a comfy little shooting pocket after the Crowder screen but before he gets to the second pick by Favors.

And all the while, Mitchell and Royce O’Neale run a little bit of “fluff” in the form of a decoy weakside pindown to keep their defenders occupied. 

Korver’s gravity is just ridiculous. On another play on Tuesday night, the Spurs were so worried about shading Korver on a basic “horns flare” action that they forgot to keep someone in front of the ball. He’s going to create a lot of good looks for Utah.

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

Two game balls this week, and they were both excruciating calls to make.

Jazz 139, Spurs 105: Rudy Gobert

Another dominant performance by Gobert: 18 points on just seven shots, plus 10 boards, four assists, three blocks and a game-best plus-30 (in just 29 minutes). Per tracking, he contested 21 shots, and his screen assists led directly to 19 Jazz points. Mitchell (20), Rubio (ran the O well, deflection machine), O’Neale (returning to form defensively) and Korver (instant offense) all got votes, but this one belongs to the big fella.

Jazz 118, Rockets 91: Derrick Favors

It’s not every game that the statistical MVP, energy guy and “narrative” winner are all the same guy. When Gobert sent a bottle of talc powder flying after two questionable early whistles, Favors stepped in and filled in beautifully for the DPOY. In some ways, Favors might have been especially well-equipped for the Jazz’s defensive schemes, as he was able to pressure the ball in space when Harden and Paul smartly turned Utah’s “contain” schemes into switches. He had 24 & 10, and owned the paint on both ends: Houston shot just 36.8% at the rim, one of the lowest figures of any team for the entire NBA season. Exum had his best game of the year (15 & 5, great defense, game-best plus-24), and Joe Ingles’ early shot-making set the pace. But this one is very clearly Fav’s.

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

Just three games this week for Utah, but true to form, they’ll travel before and after each one. 

Monday: Utah at Oklahoma City, 6:00 p.m. MT

• State of the Thunder: OKC fell victim to the new coach honeymoon syndrome with a 2-point loss at Chicago on Friday, but before that they had won four straight and 16 of 19. They’re red hot.
• Jazz-Thunder: This is the first contest between the two since Utah ended OKC’s season in a 6-game playoff series last season. That means it’s also Mitchell’s first return to Bricktown since “See you next year.” 
• Key for the Jazz: Play HARD. The Thunder have the league’s best defense, force the highest turnover percentage, and get more offensive boards than anybody. Plus they’ll be motivated. Come with anything less than full effort, and this one could get ugly.

Wednesday: Miami at Utah, 7:00 p.m. MT

• State of the Heat: Miami has won four of five, but get the Jazz in game four of a massive 6-leg western trip.
• Jazz-Heat: This game will wrap the season series for Jazz-Heat, after the shorthanded Heat came from behind to stun Utah with a 2-point win just 10 days before this rematch.
• Key for the Jazz: Miami is 22nd in the league in rim finishing and second-worst from mid-range. If Utah keeps them out of transition and off the 3-point line, they’ll win.

Saturday: Utah at Orlando, 3:00 p.m. MT

• State of the Magic: Orlando has lost six of nine, but Nikola Vucevic is having a career season with 21.0 ppg.
• Jazz-Magic: This is the first meeting of the year, but Orlando is 0-4 since last beating Utah just over three years ago.
• Key for the Jazz: How is it possible that the Jazz are zig-zagging all the way back East again, after two separate trips to the East coast in the last month?? Well they’re not really. This one will be in Mexico City, a special international showcase. 

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

In case you’re inclined to panic at the Jazz’s place in the standings — tied for 12th in the West as they head into Oklahoma — keep in mind that all 14 non-Phoenix teams in the West are separated by just six games in the loss column. That’s completely unprecedented — 1 and 14 in the West haven’t been that close going into December 10 ever before this century. The closest they came was in 2002-03 when they were seven games apart. Three other times since 2000, they’ve been nine games apart. But usually, it’s a double-digit difference in loss count between 1 and 14 by December 10.

In other words: as crazy as last year’s WC race was, it’s got the potential to be positively bonkers this season.

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

We could do 17 different angles and jokes about Gobert whacking a bottle of powder into oblivion, as that was a pretty fun part of the week.

But instead we’ll take the positive spin on that evening. Watch this video of Favors’ walk-off interview on national TV.

Watch: Rudy Gobert was ejected less than 3 minutes into the game. And Derrick Favors @dfavors14 stepped up w/ 26 points 10 rebounds to help the @utahjazz secure a dominant win over the Rockets 118-91 on @NBAonTNT! Oh, and he earned a water cup celebration from his teammates! 💦💧 pic.twitter.com/FLFZHqJueI

— Rosalyn Gold-Onwude (@ROSGO21) December 7, 2018

The best thing about this: if you freeze the frame at :04, you’ll see Favors look over to his left and smirk. He saw Donovan and the water bottle approaching. He knew it was coming. And he just stood there and took it like a champ. Here’s what it looks like when you know your hero’s shower is coming. 

The smirk of impending celebratory H2O. (TNT)

That’s it for this week. Another seven bits of Jazz fun coming next Monday.