Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert had career-high month

The Utah Jazz’s rebounding machine appears to be playing his all-time best.

Utah Jazz big man Rudy Gobert finished December with an average of 15.4 rebounds per game across the team’s 14 outings in the month, of which Utah lost only two. Per a tweet from the franchise’s official Twitter account on Monday afternoon, that average marks a career-high for any month in which the 7-foot-1, 260-pound Frenchman has seen action in 10 or more games.

With that in mind, it’s no surprise that Gobert is now on track to eclipse his career-high rebounding average for a season. At 15.0 boards per game through his 36 appearances — equal to the total number of Jazz games thus far in the 2021-22 campaign — the ninth-year pro currently sits 1.5 rebounds per game above the 13.5 career-high averages he put up the past two years.

More potential career-highs for the Utah Jazz gem

Meanwhile, at 15.7 points per game, Rudy Gobert is flirting with his career-high scoring average of 15.9, which he set in the 2018-19 season. Furthermore, if the 29-year-old’s 71.6 field goal percentage holds up this season, it would be the first time he’s ever finished above 70.0 percent; his career-high of 69.3 percent came in the 2019-20 campaign.

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Yes, all in all, it looks as if there is every reason to expect that Gobert is well on his way to earning a third straight All-Star nod — and quite possibly the fourth NBA Defensive Player of the Year trophy of his career.

Rudy Gobert and the Utah Jazz (26-10) remain No. 3 in the Western Conference standings and are coming off Saturday night’s disappointing 123-116 home loss to the first-place Golden State Warriors (28-7).

Utah returns to action at 6 p.m. MT Monday in a road bout against the New Orleans Pelicans (13-23).