Utah Jazz at OKC Thunder Game 2: Derrick and Donovan Dominate

The Utah Jazz overcame a third quarter collapse to rally to a victory in OKC, stealing home court advantage. Final score: 102-95

After a Game 1 loss we heard Quin Snyder and some Utah Jazz players stating that “they played according to plan”, but lost to the hot-shooting of Paul “Playoff P” George.

Game 2 also went according to plan, but in a much better way. And the best news is that the Jazz have stolen homecourt and given themselves a real chance to take the series.

Donovan Mitchell deserves huge credit for the late-game turnaround to re-take the Jazz lead while also breaking records. He’s doing things that no rookie has any business doing in their first playoff series. But then again, this is nothing new for Donovan.

Donovan also tallied 27 points to make his scoring total for two playoff games a whopping 55 – the most ever from a guard in their first two playoff outings. Ryan Aston, of The J-Notes wrote more on this:

T.E.A.M.

While Mitchell deserves some credit, the true hero of this game was Derrick “Playoff D” Favors, and Donovan gave him that recognition as an example of a true team player and leader.

Derrick Favors had 20 points and 16 rebounds, eight of which came on the offensive glass. He was everywhere and pulling down everything, and is a severely underrated part of this team’s success. Rudy Gobert and Derrick Favors combined for 31 rebounds and forced Steven Adams to foul out of the game and miss large portions of the contest with foul trouble.

As we’ve said many times this season. This team is so likable it’s ridiculous.

To quote Quin Snyder, “The true strength of this team is our team”.

Stopping Stars and Adjustments

The “plan” when playing the OKC Thunder has a few keys. We know about the “Big 3” (as some people call it, but we’re not sure if they actually qualify). All three are going to put up shots, but both Russell Westbrook and Carmelo Anthony are low-efficiency players who feel comfortable settling for jump shooting. Paul George, is a high-percentage three-point shooter and is very comfortable playing off the ball.

Westbrook becomes deadly, however, if you let him pick up momentum heading towards the basket where he can get to the rim or stop-and-pop from 10-12 feet. With Rudy Gobert in the middle, Russ has a tendency to stop and put up a 15-17 footer. He also likes to post up on the left side for a turnaround shot.

Honestly, Westbrook and the OKC clan can be pretty predictable.

My point is that if you can continue to force Russ to shoot these shots, he’s playing into Quin’s plans.

Quin also made a few adjustments for Game 2. He had Jae Crowder spend a little more time on Paul George, which seemingly had an impact. That, or PG just started to come back to earth a little bit.

Another note is that the Jazz actually won Game 2 with a below average three-point shooting night (31 percent on 9-of-29) compared to a decent 11-of-28 (39 percent) in Game 1. In fact, without Ricky Rubio‘s five three-pointers and Derrick Favors’ two made three-pointers, the Jazz would have had a horrendous shooting night, so the 31 percent is propped up from the unlikely distance scorching from Rubio and Favors.

Next: Utah Jazz: Gobert, Mitchell get legendary during Game 2 win

The good news is that Joe Ingles and Donovan Mitchell won’t combine to go 1-of-11 in very many games, and hopefully no more this series.

Utah looks to take a series lead in Game 3 this Saturday night.