Jazz Earn ‘Good Win’ In Ugly Fashion Over Pistons

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – The Utah Jazz knocked off the Detroit Pistons 96-86 Sunday afternoon on the road. The win moves the Jazz to 3-2 through the first five games of their seven-game road trip, with stops remaining in Cleveland and Washington.

Donovan Mitchell led the Jazz with 28 points, including 13 in the first quarter coming off his brilliant performance in Milwaukee to help the Jazz build a 15 point lead after 12 minutes.

The Pistons were able to fight back to keep the game close throughout the fourth quarter but never closed the gap entirely, allowing the Jazz to escape with a victory.

.@spidadmitchell and @MCONLEY10 combined for 50 points in the @utahjazz win over the @DetroitPistons.#TakeNote https://t.co/iNpRejzddm

— KSL Sports (@kslsports) January 10, 2021

Good Wins Disguised As Ugly Wins

Usually, after games, Quin Snyder fields questions from the media and responds. After the Jazz beat the Pistons, he opened his availability by praising his team’s performance before any questions were asked.

“That’s a really good win,” Snyder said. “And wins are tough to come by in this league, particularly after the way we shot the ball against Milwaukee.”

The Jazz hit a franchise-record 25 three-pointers against Milwaukee, allowing the team to coast to a relatively painless 13 point victory over one of the better teams in the NBA.

The Pistons meanwhile entered the game with a 2-7 record, tied for the second-worst in the NBA. To tilt the game further in the Jazz favor, the Pistons were without guard Derrick Rose who they’ve relied upon heavily this season.

In an era of pretty basketball the Pistons are good at making games ugly and then sticking around long enough to give themselves a chance.

It worked against the Suns, probably comes up just short against the Jazz.

— Ben Anderson (@BensHoops) January 10, 2021

The Jazz were expected to win the game, and they did. So why was it a good win?

The story of the first half seemed to go according to plan with Jazz built a 20 point lead and easily out executing Detroit. But in the second half, the Pistons closed made the game ugly and cut the Jazz lead to as little as five in the waning minutes before ultimately falling short.

There’s nothing pretty about a game in which the Jazz shoot 42 percent from the floor and 31 percent from three, connecting on just 5-23 deep balls after the first quarter.

But good wins don’t always look pretty, and that’s what Snyder was saying. In most of the Jazz wins this season (See Portland, San Antonio, and Milwaukee) the team has simply shot unimaginably well from the floor or the three-point line.

The Jazz opened the game looking like they were headed for another easy victory but were forced to adjust to the Pistons rugged style of play and still earned the victory.

the game has started well

— utahjazz (@utahjazz) January 10, 2021

After his 28 point, three rebound, two assist performance, Mitchell echoed Snyder’s sentiments.

“To start the year, we weren’t winning a game,” Mitchell said. “So I think this is a good win — a gutty win and we figured it out.”

Last season, the Jazz were just 2-8 in games when they failed to reach the 100 point mark. While they’d still prefer to score well over 110 points per outing to give their defense more breathing room, opening the season 1-1 in games where they fail to break the century mark is a good sign.

Mike Conley’s Excellent Pick And Roll Play

Mike Conley really struggled for the Jazz last season. Unless his shot was falling, he just wasn’t able to contribute much to the offense. Defensively he was confused about what the Jazz were trying to accomplish with Rudy Gobert protecting the paint.

The veteran fixed his defense by simply improving his on-ball defense against his man and knowing when to allow Gobert to take over.

His evolution offensively has been more impressive.

Conley spent the majority of his career playing alongside Memphis Grizzlies teammate Marc Gasol who is one of the best pick and pop centers in NBA history. As a result, Conley would come off of Gasol’s picks recognizing he’d have one defender behind him in most offensive possessions in a two-man game.

The BEST of Mike Conley & Marc Gasol in this year's NBA Playoffs, do you think we'll see them in next year's Playoffs? 🤔🐻 pic.twitter.com/9Flvb6QRQA

— NBA UK (@NBAUK) September 28, 2017

That mean’s Conley’s reads were dependent on whether his smaller defender fought through the screen and stuck with Conley, or if he generated a switch onto a bigger player.

In a switch, Conley’s options were simple, attack the bigger, slower big man on a switch, or kick out to Gasol for an open look over a small defender.

If a smaller defender stuck with Conley, he could use his quickness and floater to finish against the defense, now without a secondary rim protector who is stuck on the perimeter with Gasol. Conley became a master of it and it was one of the reasons he’s been one of the league’s best point guards for the last decade.

“The biggest difference is Marc spaces the floor in a different way with his three-point shooting,” Conley said. “So you can always count on the big trying to get back to him.”

With Gobert, that changes completely.

Gobert is always going to roll to the rim, which means regardless of how the defense attacks the ick and roll, he’s going to have two defenders in front of him. It’s a significantly different feel for a point guard who has always been a good, but never truly elite three-point shooter.

With two defenders in front of him, Conley’s ability to get all the way to the rim is trickier with Gobert bringing extra defenders into the paint on every possession. That means Conley is seeing defensive fronts that he rarely saw during his 12-year career in Memphis.

Last season, he just wasn’t very comfortable navigating those looks with the Jazz, and his injuries throughout the season didn’t help.

This season, he’s been a totally different animal.

Gobert is the best rim finisher in the league rolling to the rim, but he needs help to get to those finishes. While the All-Star center is terrific at finishing over opponents and has greatly improved his hands when catching lobs, he’s reliant on his pick and roll teammate to get him the ball at the right time in the play to set up a dunk.

methodical mike pic.twitter.com/OKm3OlHXdn

— utahjazz (@utahjazz) January 10, 2021

That understanding of timing is what Conley has done so well this season for the Jazz and it’s changed his role on the team.

Conley has found the sweet spot when attacking an opposing defense, letting the play unfold, and letting that defense get stuck in limbo of whether they are going to defend a shot or a pass, and he counters that decision by doing the opposite.

It’s tricky timing, and Gobert’s inability to create his own shot with the ball in his hands rolling to the rim makes it more difficult, but Conley has mastered it and it’s made all the difference.

“I’m so accustomed to making reads pretty quickly,” Conley said of his time in Memphis. “And now I just have to just hold the ball one or two more dribbles and use a couple of pump fakes and find him in different ways. That allows me to display a more patient and controlled game when we’re in the pick and roll.”

Gobert’s Free-Throw Struggles

Gobert’s free-throw shooting has taken a major dip this season, dropping to 50 percent from the stripe from 63 percent each of the last two seasons, which matches his career averages.

His 4.7 attempts from the free-throw line are also the lowest since his third season in the league when he averaged 4.6 attempts.

If the trend continues, teams will eventually change how they defend Gobert, preferring to send him to the free-throw line versus letting him finish at the rim.

Rudy Gobert is officially shooting 50% from the free-throw line for the season.

He's dropped to 23-46 with his 1-4 start to this game.

He's been up over 63 percent each of the last two seasons.

— Ben Anderson (@BensHoops) January 10, 2021

Gobert was already teetering on the line of whether it was better to send him to the line versus letting him attempt to finish at the rim, but if he continues to shoot 50 percent it becomes a much easier decision.

The Jazz center has extreme pride in his game and seems to hate embarrassment more than just about anything else he faces. I’d expect to see his shooting improve throughout the season.

Gobert shot just 1-5 from the floor for the game.

“There was a lot of things that I should have finished that I didn’t,” Gobert said. “Obviously the free-throws also. It’s things that I know will come along, but the main thing for me is to keep doing what I’m doing defensively.”

Despite his poor free-throw shooting, he made up for it elsewhere against Detroit. Gobert finished with just seven points but recorded 19 rebounds and had a block late in the game to seal the win.

The Jazz now head to Cleveland for stop six on their seven-game road trip.