Three thoughts on the Utah Jazz’s 119-113 win over the Sacramento Kings from Salt Lake Tribune Jazz beat writer Andy Larsen.
1. Donovan Mitchell at his versatile best
Man, Donovan Mitchell was good tonight: 36 points, eight rebounds, six assists, better defensive effort when he was on the floor. He played with energy, he played through injury, he played with the crowd. He attacked at the right times, and deferred at the right times. And even though it wasn’t his best shooting night, he still led the Jazz to a win.
First, the scoring. The Kings’ Davion Mitchell really played him extremely well in the teams’ first matchup, so what did Donovan Mitchell do? He watched the film and devised ways to take advantage of the younger Mitchell’s aggressiveness.
This is brilliant. Davion Mitchell has been lauded for his screen navigation all season long. So Mitchell fakes into the screen, spins back on the other side, and has a wide-open three. Splash.
To me, though, the thing I love most about Mitchell games like this are the assists: his athleticism makes him a special, special passer.
The Kings were playing a collapsing style of defense in order to prevent Rudy Gobert from getting lobs and offensive rebounds. Then, they ask one player to zone up and guard two players on the weak side, trying to intercept that pass by reading the passer’s eyes — like a football safety might. Look at Harrison Barnes try to predict this pass... and get it wrong.
The key for Mitchell — and really, the key for the Jazz’s offense — is for Mitchell to pick and choose his spots. When is attacking individually vs. collectively the right move? It depends on the style of defense the opponent is playing. The Kings varied it up tonight, but Mitchell did a great job of dealing with everything they threw at him.
2. Mike Conley, creating his own offense all night long
Mike Conley scored 30 points tonight. 24 of those points were unassisted.
That’s pretty incredible for a 34-year-old guard to be able to do still. But tonight’s Conley performance was a masterpiece in using craft to score at all three levels, against all different types of defenders.
I don’t know why, but Mo Harkless fully believed Conley was using this screen to drive left until well after the ball left Conley’s hand. I’ve rarely seen a veteran more befuddled.
Here, Conley comes off the screen, stays in the middle to prevent his defender from defending the shot, is threatening the lob the whole time, jumps to the side for further space, and just gets the easy floater to drop.
And finally, the drive. De’Aaron Fox is in front of him here, but one jab step to the middle of the court gives him space to drive, then he gets his body into the Kings’ Richaun Holmes to get the layup. Conley, all by himself.
It’s such a luxury to have two scorers who can do this.
One more note, to wrap up the last two points. On the first play of the game, look at how both Mitchell and Conley navigate these screens with effort to force a bad shot.
Tonight was some of the best we’ve seen of the Jazz’s backcourt — and when they play like that, they can absorb some rough performances from their teammates.
3. Jordan Clarkson, good 3s vs. bad 3s
Jordan Clarkson, as if to emphasize that his 3-point shooting streak was over, went a further 0-11 from deep tonight. He’s now missed his last 18 attempts from deep.
As long-time readers of this column know, I am a fan of shooting the 3-ball. I am also a believer in statistical variance, essentially, that some times, you will just have a random 0-18 stretch of shooting, and that the best way to get out of it is continuing to do the same things.
So I am essentially okay with Clarkson taking a lot of the threes he takes. Catch-and-shoot threes? You betcha.
Contested pull-up threes with over 20 seconds left on the shot clock with no one there to fight for an offensive rebound? Eh, not so much.
What about pick-and-roll pull-ups? Well, he shot 35% on those last year, so that’s relatively efficient half-court offense. On the other hand, that describes six or seven of his misses tonight. For me, again, it depends on shot-clock context: if you have the opportunity to try to get a high-efficiency shot through a layup or lob, explore that option first. You can nearly always get that pick-and-roll pull-up later in the shot clock.
Sometimes, NBA offense is like picking a parking spot. Do you decide to park in the open spot far away from the store, or drive a little bit further in to try to find a closer one? Right now, Clarkson’s parking far away — and it’s resulted in low-efficiency trips to the store.
Okay, the analogy might have broken down there somewhat.
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The Triple Team: Brilliant backcourt of Donovan Mitchell and Mike Conley power Jazz to win over Kings - Salt Lake Tribune
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