The Utah Jazz defeated the Denver Nuggets 122-110 on Wednesday evening. It was their most significant victory of the young NBA season to date when factoring in strength of competition, with seven Jazzmen scoring in double digits en route to a relatively easy win.From a league-wide perspective, the most significant takeaway from this game was probably Nikola Jokic’s knee-to-knee collision with Rudy Gobert with 1:54 remaining in the second quarter. The reigning MVP lay on the ground clutching his knee for a worrisome amount of time. Here’s hoping for a speedy recovery for one of the NBA’s most fun and talented players.
There was also a fourth-quarter shoving match between Hassan Whiteside and JaMychal Green that merits mention, but offers little in terms of grounds for analysis. Both men were ejected following the dust-up.
Otherwise, there were several Jazz-specific takeaways to glean from this contest. Here are three that we felt were most important.
Utah Jazz vs Denver Nuggets Takeaway #1: Bojan Bogdanovic’s defense
It may seem counterintuitive to focus on negative aspects of a 12-point victory over a fellow NBA title contender, but the Utah Jazz continue to demonstrate areas in which they could stand to improve.
During the offseason, we set a goal for Bojan Bogdanovic to post a career-best Defensive Rating. Early into 2021-22 , he doesn’t exactly look on track to meet it.
Aaron Gordon scored 20 points on a hyper-efficient 9/13 from the field last night, and Bogey deserves almost as much blame as Gordon does credit for his performance. Gordon bullied Bogdanovic down low on a consistent basis, plowing through the veteran Croatian wing to get to the basket for consistently easy looks.
Often times, it appeared that Gordon made such short work of Bogdanovic that even 3x Defensive Player of the Year Rudy Gobert wasn’t able to rotate over to help quickly enough. Granted, Gordon has physical and athletic advantages over Bogdanovic that every forward in the league will not, but conversely, the athletic Nuggets forward is a career 12.7 point per game scorer.
This was not a player who should have been lighting the Jazz up. One could argue that the onus was on Head Coach Quin Snyder to make an adjustment. Perhaps he could have assigned Royce O’Neale to Gordon. On the other hand, O’Neale had a great deal to do with Michael Porter Jr.’s inefficient 5/18 performance.
O’Neale can guard the other team’s best wing/forward, but he can’t guard their two best. Bogdanovic is going to have to find a way to compensate for his athletic limitations with improved positioning and timing, or else the Utah Jazz stand to get consistently burned by average offensive players like Aaron Gordon.
Utah Jazz vs Denver Nuggets Takeaway #2: Donovan Mitchell’s shooting slump
Another takeaway, another negative, only there’s light at the end of this tunnel.
Utah Jazz star Donovan Mitchell’s three-point shooting woes continued into Tuesday night’s action, as he shot 1/9 from beyond the arc. Otherwise, Mitchell looked to be his usual unstoppable self. The Nuggets were helpless in their attempts to defend his relentless drives to the basket.
Mitchell finished the game 9/20 from the field. In other words, all of his misses from three-point range but three were on three-point attempts. It has become quite clear that we are watching an NBA superstar in the prime of his career suffer a severe shooting slump.
Utah Jazz fans should be encouraged by this development. The team is 3-0 to start the 2021-22 NBA season in spite of Mitchell’s 30.3% accuracy on 11.3 three-point attempts per game. Last season, Mitchell shot 38.6% on 8.7 attempts per contest.
That’s not elite accuracy, but given the substantial volume in tandem with Mitchell’s ungodly ability to get to the basket for layups and dunks, it’s an excellent mark. The odds feel overwhelmingly likely that Mitchell’s accuracy will return to somewhere closer to his 2020-21 mark as the season wears on.
In the meantime, the Jazz are 3-0. Whenever you can start the season undefeated with your best offensive player in the midst of a shooting slump, you’ve got reason to be encouraged. Once Mitchell regains his three-point shooting form, the Utah Jazz will become all-the-more difficult to beat.
Utah Jazz vs Denver Nuggets Takeaway #1: Rudy Gobert might have a career-year
Eight years and 3 Defensive Player of the Year award trophies into his storied NBA tenure, Rudy Gobert was not pegged by many to have the best season of his career. So far, that’s exactly what’s happening. The Stifle Tower continued that trend last night with an impressive stat line of 23 points on 7/8 shooting from the field, and 16 rebounds.
His numbers on the season so far feel entirely unrealistic: 18.7 points on a 70.8 FG% and 19.0 rebounds per contest. Another interesting development in Gobert’s game this season has come at the free throw line. His 68.8% accuracy is a marginal improvement on his career 63.0%, but it’s his volume that’s particularly encouraging. Gobert is attempting 10.7 free throws per game through 3 games, more than double the 5.3 per contest he shot last season.
His shooting form at the line also looks a little bit cleaner, in spite of a subpar 9/16 finish against the Nuggets. It’s possible that Gobert is getting to the line more because he’s more confident there. If he could boost that 68.8% accuracy by even just two percent, we’re talking about a free-throw shooter who Quin Snyder should want attempting 10.7 freebies a night.
Either way, Gobert’s entirely absurd field goal percentage more-than-offsets his slightly suboptimal free-throw percentage. He’s been the best center in the NBA so far this season. Recently, we wondered if Gobert may be deprived of his fourth Defensive Player of the Year award due to voter fatigue. If he continues on this trajectory, he may be able to set his sights on a Most Valuable Player trophy.
The Utah Jazz came away with a resounding victory over the Denver Nuggets in spite of Bojan Bogdanovic’s suspect defense and Donovan Mitchell’s ongoing three-point shooting woes. Rudy Gobert continued his streak of dominance, leading the Jazzmen to their third straight victory. We’ll see which trends hold, and which don’t, when the Jazz face the Rockets tomorrow evening.