Utah Jazz-Memphis Grizzlies key matchup: Gobert vs. Gasol

 For the Utah Jazz to bounce back from a disappointing loss on Wednesday by earning a win over the Memphis Grizzlies tonight, Rudy Gobert will need to hold Marc Gasol in check.

After losing out on a chance to move into fifth place in the West by dropping a heartbreaker to the injury-depleted Boston Celtics on Wednesday, the Utah Jazz now find themselves with their backs against the wall. Not only are they back in eighth place in the West, but they hold a narrow one-game lead over the ninth-place LA Clippers who continue to play well.

Therefore, it will be crucial that the Jazz, who have gone just 3-3 in their last six contests, get back on track this evening when they host the Memphis Grizzlies. The Grizzlies have long been dead in the water in terms of making the playoffs and for a while looked to be aiming to simply tank the season away in search of the top pick in the 2018 NBA Draft as they underwent a catastrophic 19-game losing streak.

But oddly enough, they’ve suddenly started to show some life perhaps if for no other reason than to play spoiler as they’ve toppled some key Jazz opponents in recent bouts. They’ve won two straight games against both the Minnesota Timberwolves and Portland Trail Blazers, respectively, and their last win before that was against the Denver Nuggets.

Therefore, while one would think that facing the 21-54 Memphis Grizzlies at home would be an easy victory, the Jazz simply can’t afford to overlook them. This team is still capable of playing hard with several hungry young guns that are aiming to prove themselves as well as play for pride. Utah will need to play much better than they have of late, particularly in their recent losses to Boston and the Atlanta Hawks, if they are to come away victorious.

And perhaps most importantly, they’ll need to do an exceptional job against the proverbial face of the Grizzlies franchise, veteran center Marc Gasol. The battle between him and Jazz big man Rudy Gobert is going to be absolutely stellar to watch.

Gasol has given the Jazz problems in the past, but such hasn’t exactly been the case this season as Gobert and Co. have done a nice job of keeping him in check. In the first contest between these two teams, a hard-fought four-point victory for the Jazz, Gasol put up 20 points, but did so on an inefficient 7-of-20 (35 percent) outing while grabbing just six rebounds.

In the second contest, in which Utah used a big second quarter to pull away and eventually win, Gasol was more efficient, but much less effective. He went just 3-of-7 (42.9 percent) from the field for a mere nine points and was a minus-19 on the night. If Utah is able to do a similar job on him this time around, it’s quite likely that they’ll emerge victorious.

However, while Gobert and the Jazz deserve credit for keeping Gasol in check, it shouldn’t be forgotten that Gasol himself is renowned as an elite defensive center. And in both contests this season, he certainly didn’t make life easy for Gobert either. Rudy went just 1-of-5 (20 percent) in the first contest for eight points (six of which came from the free throw line) and 2-of-5 (40 percent) for a measly four points in the second bout.

For a guy who averages 14 points per game on an incredible 62.3 percent shooting from the field, those were obviously poor offensive performances for him. Fortunately, though, while the Jazz are certainly better when Gobert plays well on the offensive end of the floor, they’re plenty capable of winning even when he isn’t putting up a massive amount of points. The Jazz overcame a pair of poor offensive showings from Gobert in these matchups against the Grizzlies largely because he and his Jazz teammates were able to stifle Gasol and excel on defense overall.

And that’s no small task considering that Gasol can be a tough matchup for Gobert. He excels in the paint, has a good mid-range game and has become much more confident pulling the trigger from deep which pulls Gobert out of his comfort zone down low and forces him to guard out to the perimeter. Gasol isn’t shooting the three nearly as well as he did last year when he went 38.8 percent, but at 32.6 percent this season on 4.4 attempts per game, he’s still most definitely a threat.

Fortunately, he hasn’t caught fire in the least from the three-point line in either contest against the Jazz, going just 2-of-6 in the first matchup and 1-of 4 in the second. It should be noted, though, that Gasol played exceptionally well in Memphis’ recent win over Minnesota as he notched 20 points, 10 rebounds, six assists, two steals and a block while shooting 4-of-7 (57.1 percent) from three-point land.

However, over the last eight games or so, he’s been pretty inconsistent and is coming off an eight-point, 37.5 percent shooting night against Portland on Wednesday. Hopefully the Stifle Tower can force him into yet another one of his off nights, much like he did in the previous two contests, and ideally Gobert will finally have a good offensive game against Gasol this time around.

Both players have done a good job of holding the other in check this season, so the winning team in this contest could very well come down to which starting center blinks first. Luckily, even if Gobert has yet another off game offensively, his supporting cast is much more daunting than Gasol’s. Therefore, while if Gobert wins this matchup it should mean an easy win for the Jazz, I suspect that Utah will come out on top even if Gasol slightly out-performs Gobert.

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Rudy Gobert and the Utah Jazz will tip-off tonight against Marc Gasol and the Memphis Grizzlies at 7:00 PM MT. Meanwhile, the ninth place LA Clippers face the Portland Trail Blazers, meaning that if Utah loses and LA finds a way to pull off the upset of the third-place Blazers, they’ll be tied for eighth with Utah (although the Jazz own the tiebreaker).

With LA nipping at their heels and with tough games ahead to close out the year, Utah should be more than motivated to come out strong, silence Gasol and the Grizzlies, and solidify their spot in the Western Conference playoff race.