The Utah Jazz got dog-walked by the Dallas Mavericks on Wednesday night. The Jazz had no answer on defense for Luka Doncic, Kyrie Irving, and Tim Hardaway Jr. The trio cooked the Jazz like a piece of meat at a barbeque and didn't stop for any reason. The Jazz left the arena a truly broke team, with massive changes needed.
And while the trio of Mavs were the biggest offenders on the point side of things, it wasn't any of them who had the highest box plus-minus of the game. The stat tracks the impact a player has for the team on both ends of the court, on a play-by-play basis, essentially. To oversimplify it, if a player has a +10 BPM, then the player's team scores 10 more points than the opposing team if that player is on the court.
And when you look at the highest-rated BPMs the Jazz have seen all year, some names make total sense. Kevin Durant had a +30 night, while Anthony Edwards had a +27 night. Yet, it wasn't Edwards, Durant, Doncic, or Irving who had the highest BPM of the game on Wednesday night.
Nope, it was former Utah Jazz guard Dante Exum. Exum posted a season-high +40 on Wednesday night, the highest so far of the season against the Jazz. And it's not even close. the second-highest single-game high against the Jazz came in the form of a +34 performance from Anthony Davis.
Exum had a nice little outing, starting the game alongside Doncic and Irving, Exum posted a stat line of 26 minutes, five points, six rebounds, seven assists, and two steals, and is currently fourth on the Mavs in defensive box plus-minus, behind team leader Doncic, Dwight Powell and Derek Lively.
Clearly, Exum has found his role with the Mavs and he's shown to be quite good at helping his team find success. Here's hoping the Jazz can find that kind of help.