Jazz Ground Pelicans With Elite Three-Point Shooting

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – The Utah Jazz earned their sixth consecutive win Tuesday night 118-102 over the New Orleans Pelicans.

Donovan Mitchell led the Jazz with 28 points, though once again, the Jazz hot three-point shooting deserved credit for the win. The Jazz connected on 21-47 threes while limiting the Pelicans to just six makes on 26 attempts.

The Pelicans were led by Zion Williamson who paced all scorers with 32 points but was a source of trouble for New Orleans on the defensive end.

The @utahjazz added another W to their winning streak as they start a six game home stand.#TakeNote https://t.co/e3aQzYF8Xx

— KSL Sports (@kslsports) January 20, 2021

Jazz Warriors-like Runs

For about five years, the Golden State Warriors did something nobody else in the NBA could do, and that was end games in six minutes stretches of incredible three-point shooting.

It seemed to happen coming out of halftime when the Warriors would make a couple of adjustments to at the break and come out and pick opposing defenses apart.

The Jazz showed their inner Warriors Friday night against the Atlanta Hawks. And they did it again against the Pelicans on Tuesday night.

Jazz doing basically exactly what they did to the Hawks on Friday night with a big run fueled by three-point shooting to end the third quarter.

Jazz have essentially ended the game by building a 22 point lead going into the final frame.

— Ben Anderson (@BensHoops) January 20, 2021

In Tuesday’s third quarter, the Jazz hit 8-15 three-point attempts, building a 22 point lead, and ending the game with 12 minutes left to play.

The Jazz shooting was so prolific they made more threes in the 12 minute stretch after halftime (8) than the Pelicans would make for the entire 48 minutes (6).

This type of dominance isn’t unlike Tiger Woods breakthrough on the PGA tour when he showed up and could simply outdrive nearly everybody on the golf course.

Woods had such an enormous head start that it took years for opposing players to catch up. However, as the rest of the players on the tour adapted their game to match Woods, he no longer held the unique advantage he once had.

The question becomes, are the Jazz far enough ahead of the rest of the league in this three-point shooting trend that they can have an edge like Woods did on the PGA tour before the rest of the league catches up, or will enough teams be doing this in the near future that it will no longer be a significant advantage?

The @utahjazz are the only team in the NBA attempting more than 40 threes per game, and making more than 40 percent of their attempts.

— Ben Anderson (@BensHoops) January 20, 2021

The Warriors’ most prolific three-point shooting season came in 2019, their final run to the Finals, when they connected on 38 percent of their 34.4 three-point attempts per game.

Currently, the Jazz are the only team in the league to attempt more than 40 threes per game and make more than 40 percent of their attempts.

But, they’re one of five teams overall that take more threes and make them at a higher percentage than the Warriors did in 2019.

There’s no doubt the Jazz are an elite three-point shooting team and they’ll likely be one of the league’s best shooting teams by season’s end. But is that good enough to get a taste of the success the Warriors had over a five-year stretch when they won three titles?

Thats what the Jazz are trying to find out, but having won six games in a row, it looks like it’s working.

Pelicans Zion Williamson Dilemma

Pelicans forward Zion Williamson led all scorers Tuesday night with 32 points on an impressive 14-19 shooting. It’s even more impressive considering those finishes came over both Rudy Gobert and Derrick Favors, both of whom are elite rim protectors.

Guarding Zion ain't easy pic.twitter.com/bTXE8O1gkX

— Will Guillory (@WillGuillory) January 20, 2021

He’s now scored 30 points in consecutive games for the first time this season and looks poised to be one of the most unstoppable low post forces in the NBA for the next decade.

But as good as he is on offense, he’s nearly equally poor on defense.

The Jazz repeatedly targetted Williamson defensively, regardless of who he was defending. Williamson’s shortcomings were never more notable than when he was matched up with Jazz forward Georges Niang.

Against most teams, Niang provides valuable minutes for the Jazz as an elite three-point shooter, who can occasionally attack closeouts.

Against the Pelicans, Niang became a ball-in-hand isolation playmaker when matched up with Williamson, and he had repeated success.

flew right BY HIM

𝐯𝐫𝐨𝐨𝐦 𝐯𝐫𝐨𝐨𝐦 pic.twitter.com/VUSMp6y6Hq

— utahjazz (@utahjazz) January 20, 2021

When Niang wasn’t ducking Williamson’s overzealous closeouts for dunks, he was putting the second-year forward on ice skates and either getting good looks at the rim or finding teammates for open shots as help defenders had to come to Williamson’s assistance.

In fact, if there was one thing Niang did wrong, it was that he didn’t trust the advantage he had against Williamson as often as he could have.

With the Pelicans remaining in town until Thursday night when the two teams will face each other once again, watch to see if the Pelicans have fixed this glaring flaw, or if this is a long term problem in Williamson’s game.

Quin Snyder’s Teaching Opportunities

Even though the Jazz held a comfortable lead throughout the fourth quarter, Quin Snyder didn’t skip on any opportunities to coach his players.

Mitchell had a particularly rough stretch in the fourth quarter when the Pelicans began blitzing him with a double team just as he crossed half-court, leading to two turnovers and easy layups in two minutes.

The Jazz All-Star guard was so frustrated after Snyder’s timeout he slammed the ball into the round, and likely should have earned a technical foul.

Quin Snyder is taking lesson teaching timeouts right now.

The Jazz are up by 16 with 4:41, the game is over, but Snyder is making a point to emphasize his team's mistakes with timeouts.

Missed boxout led to a discussion between Gobert and Mitchell.

Quin let them sort it out

— Ben Anderson (@BensHoops) January 20, 2021

A few possessions later, Gobert missed a boxout leading to an easy putback dunk from the Pelicans Lonzo Ball, and Snyder called another timeout.

“I think it’s about never letting up, never getting in the habit of losing focus,” Gobert said. “Whenever we get up by 20, or whenever we feel like we’re playing well, always stay aware. There are a few games that we lost because we did that like in New York.”

The Jazz led the Knicks by 18 earlier this month, but a lack of focus resulted in a 112-100 loss.

Though the Pelicans never trimmed the Jazz lead to fewer than 14, Snyder didn’t miss an opportunity to fix his team’s mistakes. With limited practice due to the pandemic shorted season, Snyder is finding every chance he can to help his team improve, and it’s why he’s earned the reputation as one of the more detail-oriented coaches in the league.

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