10/18 Utah Jazz vs. Denver Nuggets: Keys to the Game

Key #2 – Capitalize Off of Turnovers

As I mentioned in Key #1, the Nuggets oddly enough weren’t all that great at capitalizing on opponent turnovers as they finished last in the league in that category with just 14 such points per game. The Jazz weren’t much better at 25th in the league with 14.7 per game, however, Utah was also very poor at forcing turnovers in general last season.

Yet with new additions such as Thabo Sefolosha, Ricky Rubio and Donovan Mitchell who excel at takeaways, Utah’s steals should go up dramatically as should their points off of turnovers as a result. That fact was already evident in this year’s preseason as the Jazz finished third in the NBA in opponent turnovers, forcing 20.8 per game, and fourth in the league in steals at 10.6 per game.

Finally, those items combined led to the Jazz finishing second in the league in preseason in points off of turnovers at 25.4 per contest. In other words, while capitalizing on turnovers was once a major weakness for both teams, the Jazz appear to be much-improved in that category whereas it’s not unlikely to presume that it will continue to be about the same for the Nuggets.

Yet, the regular season is obviously a completely different animal from the preseason, so it will be vital for the Jazz to prove that their disruptive defense and ability to force turnovers can translate over with the stakes heightened. If the Jazz are able to turn an improved ability to capitalize on their opponents’ miscues into a major strength, then they should be able to severely punish a Nuggets team that committed the eighth most turnovers of any team in the league last season.