Utah Jazz overcome shorthanded Mavericks on Christmas Day

To be entirely honest, the Utah Jazz may have snuck away from this contest with the Dallas Mavericks with the COVID-19 pandemic to thank. The Jazz came into this game with all of their regular rotation in tact. The Mavericks were without, among other key players, Luka Doncic. 

Nonetheless, you can only play with your available players. The Jazz improved to 23-9 in this surprisingly close 120-116 contest. Their offense operated below peak efficiency, but with the Mavericks lacking a primary playmaker, it was a moot point.

Utah Jazz rely on unlikely hero

In this contest, the Jazz shot 12/36 from three-point range. Furthermore, the Jazz didn’t get elite production from the stars they generally expect to.

Donovan Mitchell was 11/26 from the field, including 1/7 shooting from downtown. Jordan Clarkson was 4/13. Rudy Gobert was efficient, but he wasn’t exactly prolific. He scored 10 points on 4/6 shooting from the field.

Last night, the Jazz gave a masterclass in the benefits of depth. Bojan Bogdanovic scored 25 points on 9/14 shooting from the field, including 4/8 shooting from three-point range. Bogey was simply unstoppable.

Whenever you can get that kind of production from a tertiary threat like Bogey, it gives you a chance to secure a victory. These Utah Jazz may not have the brightest stars in the NBA, but they may be its deepest squad.

Utah Jazz fight fire with fire

Often, we’ve seen teams try to counter the Jazz’s reliance on conventional big men with small ball. In this contest, the Mavericks took a different approach.

The Mavericks attempted to run lineups that included the 7’2 Moses Brown at center alongside 7’3 Kristaps Porzingis at the 4. It appeared as if it could have been an effective counter, until it wasn’t. Brown struggled to keep up with a faster Jazz group, committing 4 fouls in the 11 minutes he was on the floor.

Mavericks coach Jason Kidd could have moved to Porzingis at the 5 arrangements, but he opted otherwise. Instead, he leaned on Dwight Powell in the middle. Arguably, this was a mistake. The Mavericks still lost the rebounding battle (49-43) without creating any of the advantages that come with running a floor-spacer at the 5.

The Utah Jazz should probably have won this game by a larger margin. Anyone simply looking at the 120-116 final score would probably assume Luka Doncic was active in this game. Nonetheless, every win counts for the same. The Jazzmen will take this one as they got it.