Utah Jazz: Hot shooting, hard-nosed D shocks Detroit Pistons
By Ryan Aston
The Utah Jazz used a hot-shooting start and a stifling defensive effort throughout to shock the Detroit Pistons and win their seventh straight game.
On Tuesday night, the Utah Jazz attacked Blake Griffin and the Detroit Pistons in a way that could serve them well going forward. They gave themselves a huge cushion with some hot shooting early, then proceeded to choke the life out of the Pistons over the game’s final three quarters.
As a result of that 1-2 punch, the Jazz shocked Detroit to the tune of a 110-79 whooping and captured their seventh straight win.
Said Pistons coach Stan Van Gundy —
"“That game was over after one quarter. I mean, they came out and blitzed us, played great at both ends, hit a lot of threes, played well defensively, turned us over a lot and when we did get shots, we couldn’t make them. It was just a really, really great night for them and a really, really tough night for us.”"
He’s not overselling that first quarter performance. The Jazz scored 42 points in the period, knocking down 81 percent of their field goal attempts and hit five consecutive threes at one point.
Jonas Jerebko and Jae Crowder were key during the big first quarter run. Overall, though, it was the Stifle Tower that reined supreme.
Rudy Gobert finished the night with a game-high 22 points and 12 rebounds. However, it was his defense that really stood out in the game. Gobert owned the paint from tip to buzzer and he and Derrick Favors teamed up to stymie the Pistons’ frontcourt stars in Griffin and Andre Drummond.
The Jazz finished plus-14 in paint points and won the rebounding battle by 20.
Griffin’s game was particularly rough; the five-time All-Star made just 5-of-16 shots for the night.
For me, those efforts and the total defensive lockdown that occurred during quarters two, three and four were just as impressive as the early outburst. The Pistons have been far from offensive juggernauts this season, but Utah’s D-rating of 80.3 for the night is almost an unfathomable number.
Aside from the effort in the paint, that number was aided in large part by the team’s active hands. The Jazz finished the night with 10 steals.
Joe Ingles had another strong overall game for the Jazz, scoring 17 points and adding seven boards and seven dimes. Jerebko and Crowder finished with 16 and 14 respectively.
Next: Exum practices with G-League's Stars to prep for comeback
Next up for the Jazz will be a Thursday home game against the Phoenix Suns.