Key #2 – Win the 3-point battle
The Utah Jazz haven’t exactly been a stellar three-point shooting team as they rank 15th in the league at 35.8 percent. Honestly, due to the abysmal deep-ball shooting of Ricky Rubio and some efficiency struggles of some of his teammates, I was somewhat surprised to see the Jazz ranked even that high.
However, in spite of Utah’s issues from beyond the arc, they’ve looked much better in that area so far than the Brooklyn Nets. Brooklyn currently ranks 27th in the league in three-point efficiency at just 33.4 percent. In spite of the fact that the Nets have been putting up quite a few points per game on the season (110 – sixth best in the league), their lack of efficiency from deep has certainly hurt them.
The Jazz were able to take advantage of that fact and outgun the Nets from three in their recent meeting last week as Utah went 11-of-29 (37.9 percent) from deep compared to Brooklyn’s 7-of-23 (30.4 percent). Therefore, if Utah hopes to come away with a second win over the Nets in as many tries, it will be vital that they do the same thing again, especially considering Brooklyn’s struggles from behind the arc.
JAZZ WIN!!!#TakeNote #BKNatUTA pic.twitter.com/OJhzMmsXW6
— Utah Jazz (@utahjazz) November 12, 2017
However, it should be noted that the Jazz just so happen to be the worst perimeter defending team in the NBA as they’re allowing opponents to shoot a league-high 39.2 percent from deep. Therefore, even though the Nets aren’t made up of a bunch of sharpshooters, if Utah can’t rectify their lousy three-point defense and punish a poor shooting team, they could very well find themselves surprised once again and still winless on the road.
Let’s hope that such doesn’t end up being the case and instead Utah continues its three-point barrage from last Saturday to win the battle from behind the arc and come out victorious in Friday’s contest.