Shelvin Mack Helps the Utah Jazz Win the Weekend

While Utah Jazz stars Gordon Hayward and Derrick Favors led the way, Shelvin Mack played an integral role in helping to secure two wins over the weekend.

What a difference 48 hours can make. Heading into this past weekend of NBA action, the Utah Jazz had lost seven of their last eight games and looked like a club on the verge of falling out of the playoff race.

The team suddenly has a new lease on life following a blowout home victory over the Washington Wizards and a big road win over the Sacramento Kings. The back-to-back wins coupled with losses by the Dallas Mavericks and Houston Rockets now have the Jazz back to within two games of the No. 8 spot in the west.

Derrick Favors and Gordon Hayward were crucial in leading the Jazz to victories, combining for an ultra-efficient 32 points on 16 field goal attempts against Washington, then following up their efforts with a combined 56 points in Sunday’s win over the Kings.

Nonetheless, it was Jazz point guard Shelvin Mack grabbing the headlines with a career night in the Wizards game on Friday, then having another strong performance against Sacramento.

With the Jazz facing a must-win situation against John Wall and the Wizards at Vivint Smart Home Arena, Mack exploded, scoring a career-high 27 points on 11 of 17 shooting, hitting three three-point shots and dishing out four assists in 34 minutes of play–

Mack faced a tough match-up with Wall, who finished with 24 points and nine assists himself, but did well to hang in there with the All-Star floor general. After the game, Hayward, a teammate of Mack’s with the Butler Bulldogs, told the media that Mack’s performance conjured memories of the guard’s collegiate stardom–

"“It brought back some memories of when we were at Butler. I thought he played well tonight.”"

He continued to play well less than 48 hours later against Sacramento. Despite facing another difficult match-up at point guard against Rajon Rondo, Mack helped the Jazz hang onto the win against a late-surging Kings team, scoring 14 points, dishing out eight assists, collecting two steals and making four of his six three-point attempts.

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In his 12 games since being acquired by Utah, Mack is averaging 12 points and 4.5 assists per game. He’s also connecting on 43 percent of his field goal attempts, both overall and from three-point range.

He had struggled in some of his team’s recent games, but has seemingly come to life as the playoff race enters its homestretch.

Now, yet another difficult test looms for Mack; Kyrie Irving and the Cleveland Cavaliers come to Vivnt Arena on Monday. But if his recent play is any indication, Mack should be equal to the task.

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The team’s point guard situation remains its biggest question mark, but in back-to-back wins over the weekend and throughout his tenure with the team, Mack has looked more like part of the solution than a source for the point guard problems.

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