Mitchell came on late in the week — and then he told us why (Chris Schwegler/NBAE via espn.com)
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 or personnel during the week.
“You did this. It’s your fault.”
-Donovan Mitchell, speaking to a fan in Detroit near the end of Utah’s 110-105 win
Right after the second-year star hit his 26th point to give the Jazz the inside lane on their 20th win of the year, he turned to a fan and had that to say.
Apparently, a courtside fan in the corner section had been giving Mitchell an earful all night, especially as he struggled with a slow start. Mitchell was 1-for-4 in the first half, with just two points. Then he opened the second half with back-to-back turnovers, missed wide right on a 3-pointer, and had a couple of passive defensive plays. And Jazz coach Quin Snyder decided to pull him, just two and a half minutes after the intermission.
“I just wasn’t doing enough on either end to contribute,” Mitchell told the Salt Lake Tribune’s Eric Walden.
Snyder explained the decision to pull his star, zeroing in on his defensive readiness. “I just felt like he needed to step back, sit down for a second and watch. That gives you a little more clarity and that can kind of strengthen your resolve.”
Mitchell got the message from his coach. And then he send a message to the peanut gallery.
Whether it was Snyder taking him out or the chatty fan in the corner who awakened him, Mitchell returned ready to play. When Joe Ingles got his fourth foul at the 7:19 mark in the third, Snyder reinserted Mitchell and let him play the rest of the game without a rest. In that 19:19 stretch, the guard had 24 points, four assists, three boards, three steals and a block. He shot 56 percent from the field and 50 from the 3-point line. And he brought his team back from a double digit deficit on the road. At one point, he scored seven straight Jazz points to seal the deal.
It was a remarkable performance. That Mitchell is capable of throwing up a 24-4-3-3-1 line in 19 minutes is impressive enough, but what makes him even more special is that he was able to pull that performance out of thin air on what had been a really subpar night up until then.
Snyder said Mitchell’s resiliency to bounce back and close the game the way he did really exemplified the persistence he and the team have been talking about lately. “Just the idea of pressing on,” Snyder told the Trib. “Donovan maybe embodied that tonight more than anyone, but our whole group had it.”
So what really sparked the guard? “I hate to do this,” Mitchell answered, “but I’m giving all the credit to the dude in the corner. He really pissed me off.”
Stats that tell the story of the week or highlight a timely topic.
There’s a reason Snyder is talking so much about persistence these days: his team has a bad habit of spotting their opponents points. In each of the Jazz’s three games since our last SC7, they have dug themselves a hole. They trailed Toronto by as many as a dozen, fell behind by nine early in Cleveland, and then faced an 18-point deficit in Motor City before righting the ship. That makes it all the more remarkable that they finished the week 2-1 and got back to .500 on the year.
The seven triples Utah converted on Saturday night in Detroit are the fewest made threes they’ve had in a season. But it did include two from Kyle Korver, so the universe still makes sense: Utah is now 8-1 when their newest acquisition scores at least twice from downtown, and 2-7 since the trade when he doesn’t.
Any ideas which Jazz player trails only Mitchell in points per 36 minute since December 4 with 19.21? Or who is leading the team in that span in assists per 36 (8.4) and assist percentage (33% of all teammates buckets while he’s on the floor) while sporting the lowest turnover rate of any of the guards? Or who has a plus-14.5 Net Rating since 12/4 while shooting 51 percent from the field, 38 percent from three and 88 percent from the line while making slightly more free throw trips per 100 possessions than Mitchell?
Dante Exum is coming off one of his best months of basketball ever. Hopefully the ankle sprain he suffered in Detroit won’t slow his developmental momentum, although he has been ruled out for Monday night. Thabo Sefolosha will also miss with a sore hamstring.
Breaking down the Xs and Os behind a Jazz score from the week.
You know who needs some love in this week’s SC7? Derrick Bernard Favors.
Fav posted a 15-and-6 week, with 2.3 blocks. Fun side note: all seven of his rejections were blocked in bounds, and the Jazz got possession on six of them. In two different games, Fav was part of the lineup that brought the Jazz back from big deficits, and he was vital on Saturday night when Gobert found himself in foul trouble and Favors held down the fort with a 92.1 DRtg and 0-for-5 rim defense.
But let’s watch him score some points.
The timing on this play was actually a little bit off, so Favors does something really smart to adjust. His weakside screen for Mitchell is supposed to take place at the same time as Gobert’s dribble hand-off (DHO) to Ingles. But either Mitchell goes a half second early or Ingles goes a half second late and they’re not quite synched up. So watch Favors smartly just wait to roll. He knows that if he waits a beat, he, Ingles and Gobert are going to have a 3-on-2 situation, and somebody’s going to score. As it turns out, Larry Nance Jr. decides to show on Ingles, and Fav just slides in behind him. Ricky Rubio’s man does eventually come over, but not in time to stop the layup.
This is a great play design, but it doesn’t work without Favors playing really smart, instinctual basketball and knowing that he needs to delay his roll by that half second or so for the play to work. Most guys would just do their thing and shrug their shoulders when the play didn’t work because of someone else’s mistake in executing it. Not #15.
What’s that? You want an encore?
This is Favors again, but it’s really Exum showing off what has made him so effective lately. The young guard used to rely solely on his speed. But now, it’s a combination of speed and a little bit of craftiness once he has the advantage. In fact, Exum’s going so fast off this “pinch post DHO” that four different Raptors try to guard him in the span of about 1.2 seconds — literally! At :50.9 on the game clock, he’s still outside the 3-point line with his man glued to him and doesn’t have the ball yet. By :49.7, he’s in the paint and the pass is out of his hands. Wow.
But what has made Exum so much better over the last month is that while he gets the advantage with his elite speed, he cashes it in by taking a slower step as he approaches the rim to survey his options and make the right play. I tweet-threaded a bunch of examples of this on Sunday night if you’re interested.
Anyway, that’s what he does here. He wipes his own man off on the pick, whirs by two would-be helpers, and then forces the big man to commit. But then his last step before he releases the pass is a long, slow stride that freezes the big and lets Dante make the right read.
In both plays, Favors is the roller even though he didn’t set the ball screen, a good way to unleash his finishing ability.
After each Jazz win, Twitter helps us decide who was that game’s MVP or most memorable performer.
Jazz 117, Cavs 91: Ricky Rubio
We could have gone Rubio (15-4-5) or Mitchell (18-3-5), but Rubio definitely needed some love this week. Twice, Rubio brought the Jazz back from an early malaise with assertive driving, directing and defending. When the Jazz got down by nine, Rubio checked back in and changed the game with his energy. He returned to the court and immediately made life tougher for Collin Sexton and the Cavs. Then he set up two straight buckets at the rim, and followed that up by scoring eight of the next 10 Jazz points. Then Mitchell got cooking in the last four minutes of the period, and the Jazz were right back in it. They won it with balance (eight in double figures) but they got back in the game in the first place because of Ricky. Jae Crowder also followed up his 30-point career high with 16, including 13 during a pull-away 25-7 run in what became a 69-42 second half.
Jazz 110, Pistons 105: Donovan Mitchell
This one was easy, though we do have to stop and give credit to a lineup of (primarily) Rubio-Exum-Ingles-Sefolosha-Favors for their 18-4 run that made it close again after Utah got down 18 early. But in the second half, Spida simply took over. He had 24 after the break and a 26-5-5-3-1 line in all, and he turned one of his weirdest first halves of the season into a potential breakout game. Honorable mention to Snyder for waking him up with the early second-half pull, but Mitchell gets this one.
Tracking the wild Western Conference postseason race and the Jazz’s place in it.
There are 11 Western Conference teams that stat site FiveThirtyEight currently forecasts to finish with 41 or more wins, plus three more in the high 30s.
So in a conference race that deep, why do the models at 538 still consider the Jazz to be one of five virtual playoff locks in the West, with a postseason probability of 92%? Here’s why:
(Going into 1/7/19)
It says something that the current WC standings essentially follow the order of who has had the most of these record-padding opportunities to date2. Utah has three times as many games against the bottom quarter of the league as OKC does, and nearly twice as many as West-leading Denver and Golden State.
A quick look at the Jazz’s next seven nights of action.
Utah has one more stop to finish this road trip, and then they hit Easy Street. Only 15 of their final 41 games will be away from Salt Lake City, where they’ll play eight of their next nine after stopping in Milwaukee.
Because after all, we’re here to have fun.
Mitchell got a signature shoe, Crowder got a career high, the Jazz won their reunion with a couple of old friends… and yet the most fun/funny thing to happen this week in Jazz Nation was this, and it wasn’t really even close5
That was weak… https://t.co/BOSg60EUjB
— Rudy Gobert (@rudygobert27) January 3, 2019
That does it for this week. Seven more bits of Jazziness come your way next Monday.
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