A Utah Jazz reserve’s hot shooting of late has been borderline mesmerizing.
If Joe Ingles continues his ongoing sizzling stretch from 3-point land, then there may prove to be no way for the Utah Jazz (31-11) to fall from their pedestal as the bunch with the best record in the NBA.
After all, despite dropping six of their past 13 matchups, which included 10 road games, the Jazzmen still have two fewer losses this season than any other squad from either conference. And if not for an Ingles shooting hand that is officially on the verge of posing a fire hazard when left on the bench too long, the recent woes surely would have reached significantly gloomier lows.
The Utah Jazz veteran’s superior marksmanship
Instead, during this 13-game span of team mediocrity that followed the group’s unrivaled 20-1 stretch this season, the 33-year-old Joe Ingles — loving his seventh year in the league after the franchise wisely saved him from the NBA junkyard in 2014 — heated his way up to what arguably just was the most impressive three-game stretch of his pro career.
Pinpoint precision. Savvy shot selection.
He displays nifty footwork to find his spots, which fairly evenly encompass the entire 3-point line and extend to 28 feet from the basket.
Plus, with only 10 attempts this season from 10-plus feet out but inside the arc, coupled with the fact that 70.7 percent of his attempts from the field come from three, it’s evident Ingles has a firm grasp of his strong suits: 3-bombs, standstill floaters, putbacks, and layups.
Furthermore, that’s not to mention all the veteran intangibles ensuring Ingles sees the playing time he deserves.
But back to his increasingly fiery 3-point prowess.
Across this latest baker’s dozen of Jazz games, the beloved 6-foot-8 lefty from Australia has knocked down 45 of his 72 attempts from three, good for 62.5 percent, capping it off with a too-hot-to-handle 18-for-22 clip (81.82 percent) between his past three performances.
Now, Ingles is shooting 50.0 percent (105-for-210) from deep, which is on track to top his career-high 44.1 percent from the 2016-17 campaign. Granted, his mark ranks only No. 2 in the NBA at the moment, trailing the otherworldly 56.8 percent via Atlanta Hawks wing Tony Snell; on the other hand, Snell’s 46 makes from long distance put him at less than half of Ingles’ count.
Meanwhile, Ingles is also on pace to set personal bests this go-round with his 12.3 scoring average on top of his 54.5 field goal percentage and 88.9 free throw percentage.
All things considered, and although nobody here combed through every recent hoops box score across the globe, it’s safe to say one would be hard-pressed to find anyone with a more fine-tuned trigger these days than good old Slow-Mo Joe.
Joe Ingles’ teammates will hope to see more of his splashes — with rare misfires, of course — when they face the Brooklyn Nets (30-14) at 8 p.m. MT Wednesday. This will mark the Utah Jazz’s first of a four-game homestand and one of 11 outings in Salt Like City across this next 14-game stretch.