Weary, Banged-Up Rockets Surprise Jazz Behind Gordon’s 50

January 28th, 2020 | by Dan Clayton

Eric Gordon and the Rockets shocked the Jazz on Monday. (Melissa Majchrzak via espn.com)

Sometimes when a great jump shooter is a little too open, he’ll think too much about the shot, find the seams on the ball, take a deep breath, and then miss. It turns out that being too open can take a shooter out of rhythm, and shooting is largely a rhythm exercise.

The Jazz on Monday night lived that truth both literally and metaphorically. Sure, they shot 22-for-54 (40.7%) on uncontested shots, but the open shooter paradox was, in a way, a microcosm of the game as a whole. Utah had every reason to win — which as it turns out, was all the reason they needed to lose. Their home misstep against Houston, 126-117, cost them their second place standing and dropped them to 0-1 against the Rockets in what could potentially be an important season series for playoff seeding reasons.

The Rockets had to come into Salt Lake City on the second half of a back-to-back, after falling to Denver on Sunday. That is usually enough of a disadvantage on its own. But then word got out that 2018 league MVP James Harden would miss his second straight game due to a thigh contusion. Russell Westbrook would also sit, due to planned rest on the back-to-back, and starting center Clint Capela was out as well. It would seem as though the Jazz had every reason to run away from the shorthanded Rockets.

But like a shooter thinking about how open he is, the Jazz played with very little rhythm. It was clear from the opening minutes that Eric Gordon was going to give them problems when he had the ball in his hands. The guard would finish with 50 points as his Rockets built a lead of up to 17 points.

Donovan Mitchell kept the Jazz in it with aggressive play and spectacular shot-making. He would finish with 36, and Bojan Bogdanovic added 30, sinking seven threes as the Jazz tried to claw their way back from a double-digit deficit.

But beyond those two, Utah couldn’t seem to get going. Joe Ingles shot just 1-for-7 from downtown, while Jordan Clarkson, Royce O’Neale and Mike Conley misfired on all 10 of their collective attempts from deep. An oustanding 46% of their shots for the night were open or wide open threes, but Utah connected on just 28% of them. (Normally, Utah’s offense gets 35% of its looks as open or wide open threes, and cans just over 40% of them.)

To make matters worse, the Jazz couldn’t get anything going from the inside, either. Houston guarded pick-and-roll actions mostly by switching the screener’s man onto the ball, and Utah had a hard time puncturing the force field that their switchy defense created around the paint. Rudy Gobert slipped screens and made himself available for high passes when smaller Rockets switched onto him. But for some reason, the Jazz guards were somewhat timid about getting him the ball.

Gobert would end the night with just five shot attempts, making is 12-point, 14-rebound night a little more impressive. The Jazz just didn’t get him involved enough to punish Houston’s scheme.

Utah also struggled to control the basketball. At one point in the third quarter, they got to within six points, 72-66, and got a stop to give themselves a chance to cut it to four or even a single-possession margin. But over the next two and a half minutes, four different Jazz ball handlers would mishandle the basketball. Conley (twice), Bogdanovic, Clarkson and Mitchell were each guilty, and the Rockets took advantage as their lead ballooned back to 12 as a result of Utah’s miscues.

On the other end, Utah mostly had to guard a playground-style offense. Gordon and Austin Rivers spent the night probing with the ball and hunting mismatches. But it was mostly in transition where Utah’s defense struggled. Houston scored 1.44 points per transition opportunity. 

The game had a weird emotional energy, probably largely due to the fact that it was Utah’s first time out since news of Kobe Bryant’s tragic death shook the NBA world. It’s impossible to know how much that impacted Utah’s juice against the Rockets, or the degree to which they might have fallen into the trap of underestimating the shorthanded visitors. Whatever the reasons, the Jazz started flat and then struggled to climb out of the hole they had dug.

Even with the unbudgeted loss, Utah is still in good shape overall. They’re 19-3 since December 10 and still in a tie for second place. But the game should serve as a caution that they need to execute more carefully against switching defenses.

Stats of the Game

28%: Without a doubt, the stat of the game was Utah’s abysmal 28% shooting on open and wide open threes. If a few more of those had dropped, it would have been a very different game.

94.7: Against Utah’s halfcourt defense, Houston only scored 94.7 points per possession, good for the 53rd percentile of all games played this season, per Cleaning the Glass. In other words, had the Jazz limited live turnovers and done a better job protecting the basket in transition, they still could have won despite all the weirdness and Gordon’s 50. Those five nearly-consecutive turnovers in the third quarter are a perfect illustration of this.

+7: For the first time since Conley’s return from injury, we saw the Conley-Mitchell-Ingles-Bogey-Gobert lineup deployed together. They played 4.6 minutes together, all in the fourth quarter as Utah attempted a comeback, and they won those minutes, 16-9. It is fair to wonder if the “Salty Cinco,” as I’ve taken to calling them, need to be logging more minutes together as Conley graduates off of his minutes limitation. In this game, having Conley play with the other playmakers in the starting unit might have been enough to crack the switching defense. Instead, Utah is spreading out its best players and facilitators.

Line of the Game

Gordon’s 50, with six boards and three assists, is the easy choice. Danuel House Jr. scored a 21-and-11 double-double with five steals. 

Decisive Moment

Over the final seven minutes of the second half, Houston outscored the Jazz 26-11, with Gordon scoring 10 of those Rocket points. The he opened the second half with a three to make the run 29-11. 

Then, after the Jazz clawed back to within six at 72-66, they committed ball handling turnovers on five of their next seven possessions. They’d never get as close as six again. 

Highlight of the Game

Mitchell had a lot of fun, contorting scores in traffic, and Bogey threw down seven triples. But instead, we’ll use this section to issue a public service announcement to ball handling guards everywhere: You may think that attacking Gobert on a switch is a great idea. It is not a great idea. You’re welcome.

Exhibit A:

Exhibit B:

Social

From the horse’s mouth.

Notes

  • Monday marked the first time since 2006 that the Jazz lost despite multiple players reaching 30+ points. Carlos Boozer and Mehmet Okur each scored exactly 30 in a 3/15/06 loss at Orlando, and Mitchell (36) and Bogdanovic (30) each reached the threshold against Houston. It was just the fourth time since 1996 that the Jazz have had two guys with 30 or more — including twice this season, both with Mitchell and Bogey. (The other one was December 17, against Orlando.)
  • Per the NBA’s matchup tracking data, Gordon scored on eight different Jazz men on Monday.

    Up Next

    The Jazz head out onto the road for a back-to-back in San Antonio on Wednesday and Denver on Thursday.

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