The Utah Jazz were widely expected to defeat the Minnesota Timberwolves last night. Having said that, few observers likely would have predicted a final tally of 136-104. The Jazz were unstoppable, and the Timberwolves were ill-equipped to even try to stop them.
These Timberwolves are talented. They boast two players that several rebuilding clubs would be pleased to call the future of their franchise in Karl-Anthony Towns and Anthony Edwards. Last night, neither were necessarily responsible for the loss, but both men were relatively unimpressive.
Edwards finished this contest with 18 points, shooting 7/16 from the field. Towns had a solid, well-rounded line with 22 points, 7 rebounds, and 5 assists on 7/11 shooting from the field. That’s outstanding efficiency, but the 11 field goal attempts do point to a superstar who looked tentative throughout this contest, often deferring to Edwards in spite of, at this stage in each’s career, being a better player.
Still, there was probably very little the star center could have done to ensure a victory for his team last night. With 136 points, the Utah Jazz were simply too hot.
Utah Jazz own the three-point line
As is often the case with this Jazz club, they secured victory by controlling the three-point line on both ends. They shot an outstanding 25/54 from deep, good for 46.3%. The Timberwolves’ ineffective three-point defense was entirely exposed last night. Weak rotations to close out shooters are a death sentence against a Utah Jazz team that rosters so many strong ones.
The Jazz got efficiency from almost the entire rotation last night. Donovan Mitchell was 5/12 from deep. Jordan Clarkson, who has been battling with his own three-point shot all season, got all of his 18 points from beyond the arc with a 6/13 accuracy rate. Even talented rookie Jared Butler got in on the fun, hitting 2 of his 3 attempts for a 6 point, 4 assist and 4 rebound performance. Admittedly, his production came in garbage time, but that remains a metric ton of production in 3 minutes of action.
On the other end, the Jazz showed these young Pups how the three-point line should be defended in 2021. They finished 17/47 (36.2%) from deep. That’s a fine mark, but the Jazz didn’t make it easy on the Wolves. If they’d defended the Jazz on three-point attempts with the same rigor as the Jazz did them, this might have been a contest.
On the other hand, Donovan Mitchell didn’t look like he was willing to let it be one.
Utah Jazz star Donovan Mitchell continues shining
Mitchell finished this game with 36 points on 14/23 shooting from the field. At the beginning of this NBA season, some observers were beginning to worry about regression for the young guard. Soon enough, we may be talking about improvement.
Mitchell is now scoring 24.7 points per game on 45.4% shooting from the field and 34.1% shooting from three-point range. Even those impressive raw numbers don’t account for the fact that he’s had such an uneven year. If he continues on the pace he’s been on lately, we might be talking about the best season of his young career.
The Utah Jazz have now won five consecutive games. They’ve got an opportunity to make it six tonight as they face off with the Philadelphia 76ers in the second game of a back-to-back.