Utah Jazz-Indiana Pacers key matchup: Victor Oladipo vs Jazz backcourt
Can the Utah Jazz’s Spanish Samurai and Spida-Mitchell keep Indiana Pacers All-Star Victor Oladipo in check?
I have never been a fan of Russell Westbrook and Victor Oladipo is a case study I use to prove my point. Westbrook does the opposite of what point guards are supposed to do. He makes his teammates worse.
There is no clearer example of this than Oladipo becoming an All-Star the year after he escaped was traded from the Oklahoma City Thunder in the Paul George trade last summer. Oladipo’s emergence as an All-Star this season has been phenomenal to watch and if he’s not the frontrunner for Most Improved Player, then I don’t know who is.
Oladipo is now averaging 24.0 points, 5.4 rebounds and 4.2 assists per game, which are well above his career averages of 17.2, 4.5 and 3.8, respectively. His Player Efficiency Rating has also jumped to 23.3 up from his career average 16.4.
Being handed the keys to an offense has allowed Oladipo to shine and he now finds himself as the No. 1 option on a team fighting for homecourt advantage in the playoffs. Indiana currently sits at fourth in the Eastern Conference, just a half game ahead of the Washington Wizards.
Such being the case, containing Oladipo will be paramount to the Utah Jazz securing the W when the teams go head-to-head on Wednesday.
As Jared Woodcox touched on in his keys to the game, Oladipo absolutely torched the Jazz the last time these two teams met. In the 109-94 Pacers win, Oladipo notched 28 points on 9-of-16 shooting, adding six assists and six rebounds. In his 35 minutes on the floor, the Jazz were outscored by 27 points.
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The Jazz countered with Donovan Mitchell, who posted 23 points of his own, but Ricky Rubio was completely absent in the game. He logged just two points on 1-of-7 shooting and failed to register a single assist. Should Rubio revert back to that type of performance, the Jazz won’t even sniff the playoffs.
If Utah wants to win its fourth straight game and inch even closer to theplayoff spot, containing Oladipo while generating some offense of their own will have to be priority number one for both Tricky Ricky and Spida-Mitchell.