Salt City Seven: Utah’s Superstar Closer, Jazz Surge Continues & More

Gobert has made a habit of owning the clutch — on both ends. (Melissa Majchrzak 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

“Every single game, he is a game-changer for us… He is playing on an MVP level right now, not (just) Defensive Player of the Year.”

-The Jazz’s Bojan Bogdanovic, on teammate Rudy Gobert

When we talk about the league’s Most Valuable Player, we generally think in terms of superstar closers, players who are so dominant that they simply get their way in close games, outdueling and even eclipsing other stars in the process.

The Jazz have exactly that brand of superstar closer. It’s just that when Gobert takes games over late, he most often does it on the defensive end.

Oh, don’t get me wrong: Gobert does plenty of clutch scoring, too. He actually has scored 18 clutch¹ baskets this season, more than LeBron James, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Kawhi Leonard, this year’s three front-runners for MVP. And his 82% clip on clutch attempts is the best percentage of anybody with at least eight shots in those circumstances. (For the record, he’s also the NBA’s leader in clutch rebounds.)

But it seems like every week, we have more examples of Gobert simply dominating the other end. Denying a game-winning shot in the final seconds of a close game, it turns out, it worth just as much as making a game-winning shot. And Gobert does plenty of both.

He was back at it this week, blocking a Delon Wright layup attempt that would have tied the game with 24 seconds left. This came right after he had scored a go-ahead bucket himself, and right before he’d seal the game from the free-throw line.

The basketball media apparatus and its fans just don’t glorify game-saving defensive plays the same way they celebrate game-winning scores. In all fairness, that could be because Gobert is so historically unique. It’s not clear if the NBA has seen a player who so regularly decided games on the defensive end of the court. If that sounds like hyperbole, read on.

Already this season, Gobert has closed games for Utah by stonewalling the likes of Khris Middleton, Kyrie Irving,  Damian Lillard, Zach Lavine and Brandon Ingram in the final 10 seconds of games still in the balance.

And that’s just a start. Utah now has 17 wins where the game was within five points in the final two minutes. In every single one of those close wins — except the one Rudy missed — he made game-altering defensive plays in the final two minutes.

Don’t believe me? Here they are, in chronological order. Beyond the sheer volume of these, notice how many of them came while switched onto a driving guard or covering a perimeter shooter.

— 10/23/19 vs. OKC: With just over a minute remaining, Gobert gets switched onto Chris Paul. The all-world guard tried to take him off the dribble, but Gobert cut him off. Paul passed the ball to the perimeter for a reset and then tried to shoot against Gobert from the right corner. He shot an airball over Gobert’s contest. The Jazz ran off Paul’s miss and got a Donovan Mitchell floater to go up four with less than a minute to play.

— 10/28/19 @ Phx: The Jazz actually trailed by two before Gobert stole the ball from Ricky Rubio and threw it ahead for a Mitchell dunk. Then on the next trip down, Gobert’s pressure forced Devin Booker to throw it away, leading to an “and 1” for Bogdanovic in transition. Jazz went up 95-92 with 1:48 to play after those back-to-back forced turnovers.

— 11/6/19 vs. Phi: Playing with five fouls down the stretch, Gobert still was able to shut down a side pick-and-roll involving Joel Embiid and force the Sixer big man into a missed stepback midrange jumper with 1:22 left. Gobert eventually did foul out, but Utah had built a 5-point lead by then.

— 11/8/19 vs. Mil: Gobert sniffed out the action that led to Middleton’s attempt at a game-winning three. He lunged at the All-Star forward and forced a travel, with enough time on the clock to set up Bogdanovic’s memorable buzzer-beater on the other end. 

— 11/12/19 vs. Bkn: Tied up with under two minutes, Gobert dissuades Irving from shooting. Instead, the All-Star guard dishes at the last second to DeAndre Jordan, and Gobert seamlessly slides back to cover him, buying Joe Ingles time to poke the ball away. After a pair of buckets of his own, Gobert then forced Irving into an awkward floater with :39 left, and contested his go-ahead attempt with :07 left to seal the win.

— 11/22/19 vs. GSW: Up just three points in the final half minute, Gobert saw former teammate Alec Burks shake loose from his defender and challenged him into a paint miss with :13 left. Burks would try again on the next play, and this time Gobert blocked him. He prevented two layups in the span of nine seconds.

(Gobert did not play in the 11/23/19 clutch win over New Orleans.)

— 11/29/19 @ Mem: After the Grizzlies made it close late, Gobert wouldn’t let Jonas Valanciunas get free in the right corner as the shot clock ran down, leading to a desperation heave by Ja Morant with 1:19 to play. Utah scored on the next possession and the game was effectively over.

— 12/13/19 vs. GSW: Utah entered the final two minutes trailing, but on back-to-back plays, Gobert challenged Burks on a drive — forcing a dump-off to Willie Caulie-Stein who missed the dunk thanks to pressure from Royce O’Neale — and then turned Burks away from the paint and into an out-of-bounds turnover. In the meantime, Utah had cashed in on triples from Mitchell and Bogey to go up for good.

— 12/17/19 vs. Orl: The Jazz had come from behind to enter the final two minutes up one, 99-98. Then Gobert’s presence forced an errant pick-and-pop pass by DJ Augustin at 1:56 that led to a run-out for Bogey. At :46, Gobert guarded a screen across the top but still managed to get back to Nikola Vucevic from 10 feet away in time to contest his tying attempt from downtown. And at :25, Gobert got out on a switch to contest his countryman Evan Fournier at the 3-point line. Utah went up seven after those consecutive Gobert challenges.

— 12/19/19 @ Atl: The Hawks finished 1-for-6 with a turnover in this one, and Gobert was all over the court defensively. But let’s just jump to the final two minutes. At 1:48, he cut off Trae Young on a P&R drive, and then still slid back to Jabari Parker to force him into a weird over-the-shoulder flip shot. Then, his block on De’Andre Hunter’s dunk attempt with :08 left and the Jazz up five pretty much put the game away.

— 12/21/19 @ Cha: As the Hornets attempted a late comeback, Gobert got cross-matched onto Terry Rozier in transition. He closed out to the Hornets guard, who thought twice about shooting. Rozier then tried a jab step to shake Gobert, but the center recovered nicely, and his length caused Rozier to hoist a much higher shot, which he missed short with 1:12 to go. (And when Charlotte cut it to three a minute later, it was Gobert’s dunk that sealed the win.)

— 12/26/19 vs. Por: With 22 seconds left and the Jazz up by three, Gobert switched onto Carmelo Anthony and forced the former All-Star into an airball from deep. Then, with five seconds remaining and the Jazz up four, he tracked superstar Lillard on a fastbreak drive and swatted him at the rim to seal the victory.

— 1/2/20 @ Chi: The Bulls had cut the Jazz lead to two, and Lavine’s fastbreak layup would have tied the game with :21 left. But Gobert met him on the left side of the rim and challenged without fouling. After free throws, Utah was up four and Lavine tried again. This time, with :07 remaining, Gobert blocked him, and then deterred a Wendell Carter Jr. try from the baseline.

— 1/6/20 @ NOP: The Jazz were up two when Brandon Ingram grabbed a defensive rebound, ran the length of the court in three seconds, and attempted a tying layup as time expired. Only problem: Gobert was there. There was contact, but Ingram also appeared to pull Gobert into him, so the refs’ whistles stayed silent and Utah got the win.

— 1/12/20 @ Was: The Jazz had already withstood the worst of Washington’s late run — thanks to eight Gobert points in a two-minute span — but then with 17 seconds left, Gobert closed the door on the Wiz for good when he switched onto Bradley Beal out front and forced the star guard into a fading stepback three that airballed.

— And of course against Dallas on Saturday, Gobert hedged to shut down a Luka Doncic P&R, then slide back to Wright, followed him into the paint, and swatted his would-be tying layup at :24 and with the Jazz up two.

Simply put, that is an insane quantity of game-defining defensive plays. 

“He’s probably going to be Defensive Player of the Year again,” Dallas coach Rick Carlisle told ESPN’s Tim MacMahon after Gobert’s block clinched the win over the Mavs. “He impacts the game massively at the defensive end. He doesn’t just do it around the basket. He does it on the perimeter too on switches.”

We’ve just delineated two dozen moments in 16 different close games where Gobert has gotten his way. Those three MVP candidates don’t have two dozen shots *combined* that meet the under two minutes, within five points criteria. LeBron is 6-for-19 in those situations, Giannis is 5-for-11, and Kawhi if 5-for-12. James’ superstar teammate Anthony Davis is 5-for-18, Paul George is 2-for-11, and Lillard — the guy who prompts us to cry “Dame Time!” every time he makes a clutch shot — is 11-for-29.

And guess what: Gobert himself is actually 11-for-14 on his own shots inside five points and two minutes². So while he’s coming up with more game-altering defensive plays than his offensive counterparts, he’s also getting it done with crucial buckets.

The reality is that a lot of Jazz players had to play well for Utah to win those 17 games. Gobert knows that. “It’s a team effort. We’re only winning it because we’re doing it together,” he told the media on Saturday. 

But simply put, Gobert IS a superstar closer. Just a different kind than we’ve seen in a long while.

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

7th

After a now 19-2 surge into second place in the West, the Jazz are now 7th in both offensive and defensive efficiency — or 7th and 6th, respectively, if you adjust out garbage times and heaves, like Cleaning the Glass does. The only other teams who are top seven in both at this stage are the Bucks (2nd/1st), Lakers (4th/5th), Clippers (5th/6th) and Celtics (6th/4th). At least for right now, that’s the contender class in the NBA. Denver (9th/10th) is top-10 in both. 

11

Per CTG, the Jazz have no played 11 straight games where their offensive efficiency — again, without counting garbage time or heaves — was in the top third of all NBA games played this season. This is the first time they’ve had a streak of more than six such games during Quin Snyder’s tenure. That’s a big deal.

21.7

Gobert is up to 21.7 points (77% shooting), 15.3 rebounds and 2.7 blocks per game during Utah’s last seven games. Over the course of Utah’s 19-2 run, he is averaging a cool 17-and-16.

51-40-98

Those are Bogdanovic’s shooting numbers over the last 10 games. He had a mini-funk over the holidays, where he failed to reach 20 in six straight games while shooting under 24% from three. But he’s back. He’s averaging 23.3 points per outing since January 6, on ridiculous shooting splits.

.583

Utah’s average opponent in the nine game that remain before the All-Star break has a record of .583, a 48-win pace. That stretch includes two separate 4-games-in-6-nights stints, plus five games against teams currently ranked third through sixth in the West. Five of those games are against teams they haven’t faced yet in 2019-20. Should be a wild and important 17 days.

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

Short clock BLOB stagger DHO

When Indiana knocked the ball out of bounds on the baseline with 32.3 seconds left in the half last Monday, the Jazz had a unique opportunity to dig into the “short clock” section of their playbook.

If they could score fast enough, they could still get a 2-for-1 to end the quarter. But that would mean scoring almost instantaneously. Here’s what came off Snyder’s clipboard.

The whole play took 3.3 seconds off the clock, and 1.9 of that was the flight of the ball.

Myles Turner is worried here about O’Neale screening for Gobert to get to the basket. Instead, O’Neale is on his way to line up staggered screens for Ingles. That’s how Joe is able to lob a somewhat high-arching inbound pass to Gobert to set up the stagger DHO action. 

Meanwhile, O’Neale’s defender (Justin Holiday) is primarily concerned about protecting the basket from an inside cut, so he doesn’t even defend this like a stagger play, instead staying very passive throughout. O’Neale and Gobert both get away with widening their screens a little to take Brogdon out of the play, and Turner and Holiday are both too far back to get involved, so Joe gets a practice shot.

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

Another undefeated weak puts the Game Ball department into overtime. Here are the heros from Utah’s three wins this week.

Jazz 118, Pacers 88: Mike Conley. Rudy was superb again, although giving him this one would mean he’d sweep the week. Mitchell led the Jazz in scoring (25), put the game out of reach in the fourth quarter, and let the Pacers hear about it, particularly Holiday, who had gotten a little physical and chatty with the Jazz star. Honestly, those two were the game MVPs and in any traditional Game Ball discussion, it would go to one of them. But you all talked me into Mike. He had 14 points (6-for-8) in just under 18 minutes, and did so in a way that made Memphis Mike seem like not too distant a memory. That is meaningful, particularly as the schedule starts to turn, so on your advice, we’ll give this one to Conley.

Jazz 129, Warriors 96: Rudy Gobert. Golden State’s TV crew at one point referred to Gobert as a “one-man zone.” He was every bit that good. He controlled everything on defense — just ask the 0-for-5 Cauley-Stein — while also piling up a line of 22 points, 15 boards, two assists, three blocks and plus-31. 

Jazz 112, Mavericks 107: Rudy Gobert. Anytime a night of basketball ends with opposing coaches saying you’re the DPOY favorite and teammates making your MVP case, chances are the Game Ball is going home with you. We already highlighted Gobert’s game-winning defensive play above, but he also scored 22 points without missing a shot from the field (8-for-8). Add in 17 rebounds and FIVE blocks, including two on Doncic and one on Kristaps Porzingis, and the fact that Snyder told reporters after the game that Gobert kept Utah in it despite the Mavs taking double-digit leads three separate times. It was just a special night for Rudy, and in a big, important game. 

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

Things are getting more compressed in the Western Conference playoff race… at the top and the bottom.

• Top: The Lakers are 3-3 in their last six, which has put them within three losses of the second-place Jazz. They also have games coming up against the Clippers, Nuggets and Rockets before the All-Star break, all teams that would like a chance to knock them off the No. 1 spot.
• Bottom: OKC has won five straight and is 22-8 since the low point in late November. They’re now within a single game (two in the loss column) of the the Rockets and Nuggets, who are tied at 5th/6th. Basketball Reference now gives them a 46.3% chance of finishing somewhere better than the No. 7 seed.

That movement has led to an exciting race encompassing half the conference: there are seven teams within five games of Utah’s 32-13 record. A cold spell by anyone in that pack will have consequences.

There’s also an interesting race developing for the eighth seed, with the Spurs, Blazers and resurgent Grizzlies all within 2.5 games and the Suns, Pelicans and Kings not too far behind.

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

The Jazz have four games in the next six nights, starting with three teams they haven’t faced yet this season.

Monday 1/27, Jazz vs. Rockets: The Jazz already had the good fortune of catching Houston on the latter end of a back-to-back. Now, they might get the Rockets without their stars, to boot. James Harden is doubtful due to the thigh contusion that kept him out in Denver on Sunday, and Russell Westbrook had planned rest for the back-to-back. This was supposed to be a battle of Western contenders, and the first look at the Jazz-Rox rivalry since both teams reloaded last summer. Instead, it could be the Eric Gordon and Austin Rivers show.

Wednesday 1/29, Jazz @ Spurs: Somehow, the Jazz haven’t played the Spurs, either. That means that the Jazz are getting a version of the Black-and-Silver that is starting to flirt with competence. After a disastrous 6-13 start, San Antonio is 14-12 since Thanksgiving. They actually have a top-nine offense since the new year.

Thursday 1/30, Jazz @ Nuggets: Gobert has won three straight head-to-head matchups with Denver’s Nikola Jokic, and is 8-3 overall heading into Thursday’s nationally televised matchup. He’ll need to have another good game against the Joker for Utah to steal one in the Pepsi Center on a back-to-back. Fun fact about Denver: per CTG, they’re the luckiest team in the league. They have 32 wins, which is 4.4 more than their expected wins based on point differential. 

Saturday 2/1, Jazz @ Blazers: Portland’s trying hard to save a disappointing season. They have the league’s third-best offense over the last two weeks, but they’re an underwhelming 4-3 in those games because of porous defense. Overall, they’re 6-11 since December 23 and they’ll play the Jazz less than 24 hours after wrapping up against the Lakers. The Jazz will be tired too, but they’ll have an opportunity to pounce on a struggling team if they can find their legs in their fourth game in less than a week.

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

These never get old, do they?

🥺SOUND ON🥺#ThisIsWhyWePlay pic.twitter.com/Ap9uLiuxSC

— Utah Jazz (@utahjazz) January 25, 2020

That’s a wrap on another week in Jazzland.