The Utah Jazz were supposed to beat the injury-riddled Philadelphia 76ers last night. Mission accomplished. Frankly, they could have beat them by less than 35 points and still walked away feeling satisfied. There are several explanations for how this absolute drubbing occurred. Perhaps most notably, the 76ers were without their most important player in Joel Embiid (not to mention Ben Simmons, who is a Sixer in theory only). Still, there are reasons for this outcome that exist in the vacuum that was last night’s contest as well.
The Utah Jazz dominated the glass, out-rebounding the 76ers 56 to 42. In Embiid’s absence, the Jazz’s dominance on the glass made Doc Rivers’ decision to play Andre Drummond for a mere 12 minutes slightly confusing.
Perhaps more significantly, the Jazz handily won the three-point battle. It’s worth noting that the team only shot 38 threes, a slight decrease from their season average of 41.9. We’re not saying Quin Snyder reads the J-Notes, but we can’t rule the possibility out either.
The results spoke for themselves, with the Jazz downing 16 of those attempts for a conversion rate of 42.1%. By contrast, the Sixers went 6/29 from beyond the arc, a putrid 20.7%. The Jazz continued their trend of elite three-point defense, as the 31.7% accuracy they’ve held opponents to ranks 5th in the NBA.
A victory over a club without its best player(s) may be expected, but a final score of 120-85 is worthy of praise against any professional basketball team. Here are 2 studs and 1 dud from this dominant Utah Jazz performance.
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.
Utah Jazz stud: Rudy Gobert
Bojan Bogdanovic earned his stud designation by turning in a season-best performance. Rudy Gobert, on the other hand, earned his by mostly providing more of the same.
The Stifle Tower finished this contest with 15 points, 17 rebounds and 4 blocks. That last number is the most intriguing one. The 1.9 shots that Gobert is blocking per game in 2021-22 are actually his lowest per game average since his rookie season. It’s no coincidence that the 15.4 rebounds he’s grabbing per contest are a career high. Each statistical outcome is indicative of what feels like an intentional strategic shift: Gobert is opting to disrupt and collect shots rather than send them away.
All of which is great, but it’s still fun when Gobert uses his go-go gadget arms to swat shots. Blocks aside, Gobert was utterly dominant in this contest. The Sixers had no answer for him. It is, once again, confusing that Rivers played Andre Drummond for a mere 12 minutes. Undeniably, Drummond is a player with warts, but in Embiid’s absence it would seem prudent to play him against a Utah Jazz team rostering one of the best centers in the NBA.
Doc Rivers tried Charles Bassey for 9 minutes, but the rookie simply wasn’t ready for the rigors of guarding Gobert. He tried a small-ball approach resembling the Los Angeles Clippers’ strategy against the Jazz in the Western Conference semifinals last season. Credit Doc for boldness, but the 3 rebounds that former Utah Jazz player Georges Niang grabbed in his 30 minutes of action hardly made a dent in Gobert’s dominance.
All told, the Utah Jazz dominated the interior because Rudy Gobert dominated the interior in this contest. As impressive as Bogey was on the offensive end, it wouldn’t be hard to make the case that Gobert was once again the most valuable Jazzman last night.
Utah Jazz dud: Donovan Mitchell
Donovan Mitchell stormed out of the gates last night, scoring 6 points within the first 4 minutes of the game. He just didn’t get very far past those gates.
The best scorer on the Utah Jazz finished the game with 13 points, shooting a reasonably efficient 5/12 from the field and 1/3 from beyond the arc. If anything, Mitchell may deserve credit for a measured performance. It’s entirely possible that he recognized that it was Bojan Bogdanovic’s (and, to a lesser extent, Jordan Clarkson’s) night, opting to give his teammates space to operate.
Nonetheless, if we’re forced to identify a dud from this contest, it’s got to be the guy who scored almost 12 points fewer than his season average (24.6 points per game). There’s no reason to be concerned here: Mitchell played 22 minutes in a blowout in which his teammates were hot.
It was still a dud of a performance. It just happens to be one that Utah Jazz fans should have extreme confidence in Mitchell to bounce back from.
Alternatively, there might not have been a dud in this game. “Utah Jazz: 2 studs from demolition of Philadelphia 76ers” just makes for a less catchy headline.
The Utah Jazz may have been widely expected to win this contest, but they still deserve credit for taking care of business. They’ll square off with the Toronto Raptors in their next game, tomorrow night.