Official Game Thread: Jazz at Hawks

[lethalweapon3]

“If you’re ever gonna be a head coach in this league, Quin, you’re gonna have to quit sucking your thumb.”

 

Is it crazy to question if the Utah Jazz – yes, the Jazz – are slipping just a bit? It sure would come in handy against an Atlanta Hawks team that just hosted Doncic and the Lukatics last night.

The Jazz waltz into State Farm Arena (7:30 PM Eastern, Fox Sports Southeast and 92.9 FM in ATL, AT&T SportsNet in SLC) with a 16-5 record, the NBA’s best. They were certainly firing at all cylinders even before they throttled the Hawks, 116-92, in Salt Lake City back on January 15 (Trae Young shot just 1-for-11 on the evening and added just two shots from the free throw line).

But upon tipping off for what would be their fourth-straight win, the Jazz embarked on a nine-game stay entirely within the Mountain Standard Time zone, leaving The Beehive State just twice to visit their Nugget cousins to the east. They enjoyed the ability to scout and play consecutive games against the Pelicans and the Mavericks on their own turf, sweeping those games by double digits, too.

It took Denver’s Nikola Jokic, catching Utah on their fourth-game-in-six-nights and racking up 47 points and 12 boards to finally muffle the Jazz in January. Still, the surge was good enough that Quin Snyder earned the Western Conference Coach of the Month award, his first since March 2018.

All was well returning home, as the Jazz blitzed to 28-point opening-half and 27-point third-quarter leads against the downtrodden Detroit Pistons on Groundhog Day. Then, in a stretch that Utah won’t want to wake up and re-live, their lead was whittled down to four with 90 seconds remaining. (This feels like a thing, with the Pistons.)

Cold shooting, blown free throws, slippery backcourt defense, sticky iso-ball… no matter. A couple of quick threes from Bojan Bogdanovic in the closing minutes helped to finally put the Pistons to bed.

Donovan Mitchell (32 points vs. DET; 6-for-10 3FGs vs. ATL in January) missed out on the Mavs series while clearing his way through the concussion protocol. There remain stretches, notably in the preceding Pelicans series, where he can look like his dominant self, and runs of play where it appears he could use a Snickers.

And much of Spida’s excessive ballhandling seems unnecessary, particularly while playing alongside Mike Conley (+30 plus/minus vs. ATL on Jan. 15; behind only Kawhi Leonard among NBA starters for plus/minus per game) with his renewed efficiency. In games when Donovan exceeds the 32.5 percent usage produced against Atlanta last month, Jazz outcomes are a toss-up (3-3, incl. blowout losses to the Knicks and the per-Harden Nets), compared to 11-2 when his teammates execute a higher share of the plays. Even last season, Utah was 1-9 when Mitchell’s usage exceeded 36 percent (44-17 otherwise).

When he’s used in a traditional 2-guard role, he thrives (50.6 catch-and-shoot 3FG%, higher than all but Joe Harris and Paul George among NBA’ers with more than 2.0 makes per game) and the Jazz do, too. Atlanta (10-11) wants Mitchell (career-high 3.4 TOs per-36; 0.76 iso points-per-possession, lower than all except Vic Oladipo among NBA’ers with more than 2.0 iso possessions per game) milking the clock and producing more turnovers than the paltry ten they coaxed out of Doncic and the Mavs last night.

What the Hawks don’t want is the floor spread and Mitchell joining Conley, Bogdanovic, and sixth-men Jordan Clarkson and Joe Ingles having field days with open shots beyond the 3-point arc. All of those players have made over 40 percent of their treys, excepting Clarkson (38.2 3FG%), who isn’t too shabby, either. So far, Utah has shot better in away games (41.0 team 3FG% on the road, 2^nd in NBA) than they have in SLC. Sticking Trae (questionable, bruised calf), defensively, onto Mitchell and not falling for the trick of helping may be a “trap”, of sorts, in the Hawks’ favor.

By acquiring Mitchell for Tyler Lydon and Trey Lyles, the Jazz won the 2017 draft-day trade with the Nuggets in a rout. For the Hawks to ever say they edged out Dallas in 2018’s Draft, we’ll need to see much more than we got out of a listless Cam Reddish yesterday (1-for-8 FGs, 2 wretched turnovers vs. Luka, 1 assist, no steals).

Reddish played the fewest minutes of the Hawks’ starters last night, and today he’ll need to be energetic and impactful at both ends. Offensively, and perhaps by design, Cam was one of Atlanta’s bright spots against Utah in January (team-high 20 points, 4-for-5 3FGs and a pair of O-Rebs), but his inability to produce stops (1 steal in 28 minutes) had him end the evening with a game-worst negative-34 plus/minus. Reddish needs to be disruptive in picking off passes to Utah’s would-be shooters and turning those into transition buckets.

Defensively, Clint Capela and John Collins (career-high 35 points vs. DAL) hope to do a better job of having Rudy Gobert (15-and-13 plus 4 blocks vs. ATL on Jan. 15), Georges Niang and Derrick Favors in jail when they get touches around the paint, keeping the Jazz (30.0 team O-Reb%, 2^nd in NBA) to maximum one-shot possessions. But if Reddish, Young and Kevin Huerter (probable, sore ankle) are letting the Jazz bigs’ outlet passes go undeflected, they’ll be effectively bailing Utah out. If the Jazz are slipping a bit, don’t treat them like the Mavs and break their fall.

 

Happy Trails to Bebe. Let’s Go Hawks!

~lw3

[lethalweapon3]

And you thought your team's All-Star Starter ballot results are shady.

 

Utah's in full health (must be nice), aside from lightly-used Elijah Hughes (out, sprained ankle).

Trae (calf) and Gwu (Achilles) are still listed as questionable on the 5:30 report. Huerter (ankle) remains probable.

~lw3

[ATLHawks3]

I know for sure that Utah is going to employ that trap they used on Trae last time we played as well as what happened last night vs. the Mavs.

[ATLHawks3]

I take it back, he's out.

 

 

[lethalweapon3]

3 minutes ago, ATLHawks3 said:

I know for sure that Utah is going to employ that trap they used on Trae last time we played as well as what happened last night vs. the Mavs.

they probably gonna trap him on the sidelines anyway.

~lw3

[lethalweapon3]

All I ask of Rajon is, when the end-of-quarter clock is running down, stop worrying about your career FG% taking a hit.

~lw3

[NBASupes]

Could this be a trap game for Utah 

[Dnice]

May as well check out something else..

[Buzzard]

I am going to watch it but hating that injury update. We need a lot of stellar play to be able to stay in this one.

[TheNorthCydeRises]

1 hour ago, ATLHawks3 said:

I take it back, he's out.

 

 

[bleachkit]

JC should have another big night scoring the ball for fantasy owners

[bleachkit]

Well hopefully we can get back on track against Toronto. This is going to be a brutal month for the Hawks.

[RedDawg#8]

They have officially coached Cam in to a trash defender making him go over every screen now instead of choosing the best angle. 

Going to be a long night if Donovan is going to get clean looks with no hand in his face.

[Buzzard]

Bench Reddish.

[aali34]

Not much of a offensive strategy being shown. All I see are pick and rolls. Get Kev some looks from 3.

I'd even experiment with John shooting threes coming off of actions outside pick and pops or baseline threes.

[NBASupes]

This one starting off on a bad foot. 

Kevin playing awful defense. 

Capela refusing to defend in space

Cam playing timid

[aali34]

All of the shots look forced. 

[bleachkit]

We just dont match up well with this team. 

[NBASupes]

That was Kevin best drive and finish of the season over Favors

[bleachkit]

Did Kevin just make a tough driving lay up? Mark this day in history.