Utah Jazz vs Atlanta Hawks Key #2: Forcing turnovers
Turnovers were the story of the previous matchup between these two squads, but you wouldn’t know it from looking at the box score. The Hawks actually did a better job of holding onto the ball than the Jazz, as they committed 9 turnovers to the Jazz’s 14. The issue for the Hawks was that 4 of those 9 turnovers came in the fourth quarter.
It’s no coincidence that the Jazz blew that game out of the water at that exact moment. They actually are not a strong team when it comes to forcing turnovers, as the 12.1 miscues they force per contest rank 29th in the NBA.
That’s largely due to design: Quin Snyder’s conservative defensive schemes are intended to focus on closing out three-point attempts and encourage opponents to try their luck against one of Rudy Gobert or Hassan Whiteside in the restricted area. Meanwhile, the Hawks only commit 11.7 turnovers per game, the fourth best mark in the league.
None of which means that the Utah Jazz can’t defy convention for one contest and emphasize forcing the Hawks to turn the ball over. It was certainly a key to victory in the last matchup. The Jazz don’t need to overhaul their defensive structure to accomplish this goal: some slight modifications to their game plan could go a long way towards winning the turnover battle in this contest.
The Utah Jazz don’t force a lot of turnovers, and the Hawks don’t commit a lot of them. Therefore, this particular slide may feel counterintuitive to some readers. To them, we would say that no matter how strong your fastball may be, sometimes it’s the curveball that earns you the win.