Utah Jazz vs. Toronto Raptors: Keys to remain undefeated at home

Key #3 – Shut down DeMar DeRozan

Although several NBA analytics gurus can’t stand DeMar DeRozan due to his tendency to take long mid-range jumpers, there’s also no questioning that they are one of his strengths and he does quite well with his long twos. This is further evidenced by the fact that he’s shooting a solid 47.3 percent from the field despite holding a three-point percentage of 22.2 percent.

In fact, when taking a deeper dive into his shooting stats, DeRozan’s shooting percentage on two-point shots from between 10-19 feet this season is an impressively solid 53 percent (34-of-64). In other words, though his method for racking up points may not be the conventional way in today’s three-point heavy NBA, he certainly does a good job of getting buckets his own way. His team-leading 21.7 points per game are evidence of that.

There’s no questioning that DeRozan is the lifeblood of his team’s offense, which in and of itself makes it important to shut him down. However, in addition to that, DeRozan is also a very streaky, heat check kind of guy. If he’s allowed to get some momentum and see some shots fall, he can usually get it going and be deadly on the offensive end.

However, on the flip side of that, if DeRozan is flustered and forced into difficult shots, he also has a tendency to fall victim to highly inefficient nights. If the Jazz want to throw the Raptors team as a whole out of their rhythm, they’ll need to start by rendering the team’s offensive leader ineffective – cut the head off the snake (or the dinosaur?) so to speak.

DeRozan’s All-Star running mate Kyle Lowry has put up a lackluster 12.9 points per game so far on the season. That’s bound to increase at some point, so the Jazz have to be careful not to let Lowry have a breakout game, but regardless of if he does or not, stopping DeRozan will have to be the principal focus.

If the Jazz are able to do so, much like they forced Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum into largely inefficient nights on Wednesday, they they will be in great shape to send the Raptors home with yet another game in the loss column.