Key Match-up – Rudy Gobert and Brook Lopez
In the last match-up between the Jazz and Nets, Rudy Gobert did an excellent job of slowing down Brooklyn’s leading scorer Brook Lopez. Despite averaging a sturdy 20.5 points per game, Lopez finished with just 14 points on a less than impressive 6-of-16 outing from the field.
Lopez has worked on extending his range beyond the three-point line, and he’s done a respectable job of it overall, shooting 33.9 percent on the season. However, against the Jazz the Nets big man was held to just a 1-of-6 shooting night from deep.
To be honest, after Utah’s success against Lopez the last time around, I was tempted to pin the key match-up as the one between George Hill and Jeremy Lin, who recently returned to action for the Nets after the All-Star break and put up an exceptional game against Sacramento. But the fact of the matter is that Lopez is Brooklyn’s go-to guy and while Lin can be dangerous, Lopez is the one Utah needs to be the most concerned about.
A strong game for Brook Lopez (24p/8r) as he crosses 10,000 career points!@BrooklynNets top the @SacramentoKings, 109-100. pic.twitter.com/h7gJGCOduf
— NBA (@NBA) March 2, 2017
And given his notable struggles against the Jazz the last time around, I expect him to be set to play with a bit of a chip on his shoulder and to come out firing on all cylinders tomorrow night.
Therefore, Utah will need Rudy Gobert to be at his best once again. In the earlier contest against Brooklyn, Gobert finished with a solid 15 points and 16 rebounds to thoroughly win the match-up. Unfortunately, most recently Rudy has posted two straight games in which he has been significantly less than daunting on both ends of the floor.
Quite frankly, he has looked out of sync and his struggles were a large reason why Utah was unable to come away victorious in either contest. Therefore, both for his sake moving forward and for the Jazz’s success in tomorrow’s game, Gobert will need to come out strong and have a big performance against Lopez.
Although Lopez is a solid player in his own right, he doesn’t necessarily have the quickness or versatility to provide an overly worrisome problem for Gobert. Therefore, in spite of the Stifle Tower’s two most recent performances, I expect him to come up big for the Jazz in tomorrow’s contest against the Nets.