The Utah Jazz Won Game 1, Now It’s Time to Get Selfish

Winning at least one of the first two games on the road was an important mission for the Utah Jazz coming into their first round playoff series. But now that they’ve done it, why stop there?

The Utah Jazz are not known for being a selfish group of guys whatsoever. And that’s absolutely a good thing. This group plays as a team, has perfectly embraced a next man up mentality, has bought in on accepting and playing their role perfectly and consistently looks to do what is best for the team as a whole rather than for any one individual.

Watch the Jazz for a mere five minutes and you’ll see just what an unselfish group they are. They pass the ball extremely well, make solid plays on both ends of the court for one another and typically always make the best basketball play as a team.

This type of unselfishness is absolutely ideal and is the way that the Jazz ought to continue to play. It’s allowed their whole to become greater than the sum of its parts and is the reason why they’re a 51-win team and the fifth seed in the Western Conference despite a never-ending slew of injuries this season.

However, in this particular case, after going into LA and stealing Game 1 from the Los Angeles Clippers to take a 1-0 lead and home court advantage in the series, it would be perfectly acceptable for the Jazz as team to finally get a little selfish.

Allow me to explain. The narrative for this series has largely been, “If the Jazz can just win one of these first two games on the road and go into Salt Lake with the series knotted at one apiece, they’ll be in great shape.” To be fair, that’s absolutely true. Let me be clear that if Utah loses tomorrow, I’ll still be absolutely thrilled that they stole a game and come back to Salt Lake with a road win under their belt. That was the mission coming in and they accomplished it.

But why stop there?

Game 1 was a battle, make no mistake about it. The Jazz didn’t run away with the win by any means. However, the victory no doubt was a huge mental blow to the Clippers whose struggles in the playoffs are well documented. For a good snapshot of their recent postseason struggles, be sure to check out this great piece from our very own Caleb Manser that touches on the subject.

So while a 1-1 series heading to Salt Lake would be great, why not be a little selfish? Why not get a little greedy? Why not take the Clippers by the throat and make the goal instead to take a 2-0 lead.

I’m certain that despite the narrative from media or the fans (I saw some foolishly suggesting the Jazz rest players for Game 2 to prepare for Game 3!), Quin Snyder and this Jazz team are 100 percent determined to do everything they can to do just that. Home court advantage is great, but there’s certainly no guarantee that the Jazz will just magically win all three games in Vivint Arena.

However, if Utah is able to rattle the collective psyche of the Clippers by taking a 2-0 lead into Salt Lake, then the Jazz are going to be in great shape and the series will become that much more of an uphill battle for LA.

Of course, that will be a tall task given that Rudy Gobert, who shockingly went down with a knee hyper-extension and bone bruise just seconds into Saturday’s contest, will be out for tomorrow’s bout. However, Utah found a way to win without him the first time, largely by relying heavily on the likes of Derrick Favors and Joe Johnson, and if they can come out with that same killer mentality and play a similar game tomorrow, there’s no reason why they can’t do it again.

So, yes, having stolen a game on the road will be nice regardless of what happens tomorrow night. This Jazz team accomplished that by playing absolutely unselfish basketball, which is something they ought to continue to do on the court. However, in terms of their winning mentality, for once this typically unselfish and reserved Jazz squad has every right to reverse that trend and be selfish in that regard.

There’s no need to be satisfied with just the Game 1 victory. Why settle for one road win, when they can have two?

As our very own Drew Mackay pointed out earlier today, Quin Snyder did an excellent job of orchestrating Utah’s victory by topping Clippers coach Doc Rivers in what was a back-and-forth chess match between the coaches. Yet there’s no doubt that both will have made adjustments and will be prepared to deal with one another a second time in tomorrow’s bout.

While knowledge of Gobert’s absence will certainly give Rivers time to adjust his game plan based on what the Jazz were able to do in Game 1, if Snyder was able to adapt under such short notice with arguably his best player going out of the game, then I can hardly wait to see what he has up his sleeve with two days to plan for how to approach the game in Rudy’s absence.

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If Quin’s able to put together as successful of a game plan with the Stifle Tower out of commission as he did on Saturday and if the Jazz come out hungry, anxious for the win and with a bit of a selfish desire to not settle for a 1-1 lead, but to take a commanding 2-0 lead into Salt Lake, then they could very well find themselves solidly in the driver’s seat for taking control of the series.

We won’t have to wait long to find out if such will be the case as the Jazz will be back in action tomorrow night at 8:30 pm MT.