Utah Jazz: 2 studs and 1 dud from demolition of Philadelphia 76ers

Utah Jazz stud: Bojan Bogdanovic

Bojan Bogdanovic’s struggles this season have gone relatively unnoticed. It’s possible that while his teammate Jordan Clarkson has typically strung together a series of atrocious performances, Bogey has been more subtly underwhelming. On the subject of Clarkson, he delivered a solid performance last night as well (20 points on 8/20 shooting from the field), but Bogdanovic broke out in a much more significant way.

The Croatian sharpshooter finished with 27 points on 9/12 shooting from the field and 5/7 shooting from downtown. A strong drive for a layup to finish the first half with 2.5 seconds remaining on the clock portended a second half explosion. Bogdanovic scored 19 of his 27 points in the second chapter of this contest.

However you like your buckets, Bogey gave them to you in this one. Assisted threes, unassisted threes, drives, cuts: Bogdanovic gave the fans in Salt Lake City a holistic demonstration of NBA offense last night. It was the type of offensive performance Utah Jazz fans have come to expect from the 7 year veteran.

Overall, Bogdanovic’s numbers are beginning to resemble his mean following last night’s performance. On the season, he’s averaging 17.7 points while shooting 44.8% from the field and 37.8% from three-point land. He’d still like to bump that latter figure closer to his career 39.3% average, but we’re reaching a point where that qualifies as a nitpick rather than a criticism.

It’s a tall order, but if Bogdanovic could begin stringing performances together that resemble last night’s, we could soon stop talking about a down year, and start talking about a career one.