Create opportunities for Joe Ingles
Whether or not Mitchell can go, the play of Joe Ingles is going to be a huge factor in not just Game 2, but the rest of the series. Paul George has long been considered one the premier defenders in the NBA, and on Sunday, he showed Jazz Nation why.
Many people who don’t watch the Jazz on a consistent basis don’t understand the level of importance that Ingles holds to the Jazz offense. He is often the primary ball handler, and takes a lot of pressure away from Ricky Rubio and Donovan Mitchell. He is also one of the top passers on this team. When you remove Joe Ingles from the equation, it has clear negative effects to the Jazz offense.
Thunder's Paul George on defending Jazz's Joe Ingles: "Just pressure him. It's very, very unlikely he'll beat me off the dribble. I'll take my chances in the foot speed." pic.twitter.com/PSB4uZ5ETP
— Ben Golliver (@BenGolliver) April 16, 2018
Ingles will have to make George work harder on defense. He needs to be constantly moving and cutting off the ball, running him off screens and not allowing him to just stand there guarding him in the corner. I expect Quin Snyder to develop more within the offense to get Ingles more heavily included.
Some options would be off-ball screening to create switches, having Ingles start the offense more frequently by bringing the ball up the floor and I even heard the suggestion of playing Royce O’Neale at the three, and moving Ingles to the power forward position at times. This would create a matchup between Ingles and Carmelo Anthony, which he should find more success with.
However they do it, Joe Ingles must be more involved this time around, forcing Paul George to work harder on the defensive end, so he can’t be fresh to attack on the offensive end.