Panic – Individual matchups hurt the Jazz
Considering that Oklahoma City has such a talented, star-studded starting lineup, it should come as no surprise that the Jazz would find themselves facing some matchup issues in this series. That certainly was the case on Sunday as each of OKC’s Big 3 easily won their respective matchups.
Carmelo Anthony wasn’t exactly efficient, going just 5-of-13 (38.5 percent) from the field and 2-of-7 (28.6 percent) from three, but he still finished with 15 points and many of his made baskets came at critical points that helped his Thunder team build or gain momentum. Not only that, but he thoroughly outplayed his Jazz counterpart at the starting four spot, Derrick Favors.
Favors finished the game with just seven points on 3-of-7 (42.9 percent) shooting from the field. Derrick can really give this Jazz team a boost, particularly if he finds himself covered by the notoriously poor defender Carmelo Anthony, so Utah needs to find a way to exploit that potential mismatch.
Sure, Anthony can stretch Favors out to the free throw line and create his own shot off the dribble in ways that could make him a troublesome matchup for D-Favs as well, but at the end of the day, I think it’s entirely possible for the Anthony-Favors bout to sway in Utah’s favor if executed properly.
Russell Westbrook was also far and above the better player in his individual matchup with Jazz starting point guard Ricky Rubio. While Rubio went a measly 5-of-18 (27.8 percent) from the field and 0-of-3 from deep, Westbrook came up big with 29 points on 40 percent shooting from the field.
Westbrook is an athletic freak that has hurt the Jazz on several occasions. If he’s allowed to have his way, this could end up being a short postseason trip for Utah. On the flip side, Rubio absolutely has to be a reliable shooter for the Jazz to have any chance in this series. He had been shooting the ball much better of late, but reverted back to his early-season ways on Sunday night and was unable to find any sort of reliable rhythm.
But the Thunder player that hurt Utah the most was by far Paul George, or “Playoff P” as he referred to himself leading up to the game. George exploded for 36 points while knocking down 8-of-11 (72.7 percent) of his threes. Regardless of who the Jazz threw at him – Joe Ingles, Royce O’Neale and others – George simply could not be stopped.
Ingles attempted to get under his skin, but apparently it only fueled George’s fire. O’Neale made several defensive mistakes against him and, in all, Utah proved that they don’t exactly have an ideal option to attempt to hold George in check.
The performances of all three of those Thunder players in Game 1 is certainly a reason for concern and potential panic among Jazz fans. We know how good each of them is and if Utah is unable to find a way to compete in the individual matchups against those guys, this series could be over before we know it.
Fortunately, the battle between Rudy Gobert and Steven Adams ended up pretty even with Adams cashing in 12 points and seven rebounds while Gobert finished with 14 points and seven rebounds. However, Adams just seemed to make extremely timely plays and his physicality clearly bothered Gobert all night long.
The good news is that, although Utah looked outmatched in several of these one-on-one battles, there also was a clear silver lining to the outcome, which I’ll address in my next point.