Three thoughts on the Utah Jazz’s 147-134 loss to the Atlanta Hawks from Salt Lake Tribune Jazz beat writer Andy Larsen.
1. A wild, pickup type game
Two hundred and eighty-one combined points.
KSL’s Ben Anderson had a good stat: it’s the first time an NBA team has allowed 140 points in three consecutive games since the 1980s. It’s also the highest number of combined points in a Jazz game that didn’t go to overtime since the 1980s, when basketball really was frequently played at a track-like pace.
This game was too. The Hawks shot 53% from three and scored 81 points in the first half, before slightly slowing it down late in the fourth when they were just trying to see out the end of the game.
The Jazz put out some absolutely wild lineups, meanwhile: they ended the game with all of Isaiah Collier, Collin Sexton, Keyonte George, Johnny Juzang, and Brice Sensabaugh out there. Who’s the center in that lineup, Sensabaugh? It’s a new level of pace and space.
There’s a reason coaches usually play forwards and centers, though: they’re better at defense. All of those players above are negative defenders, and so while it was a remarkable shooting night for Atlanta, it makes sense that they’d be so hot — there weren’t any arms there to bother shots inside or out.
It is funny when Collin Sexton has to be your main rebounder and Keyonte George has to be your main rim protector. It is not, however, particularly effective.
It is also just difficult to get particularly upset about any of it. Would it be optimal to play even one tall (from an NBA perspective) person? Probably. Does it particularly matter when the goal is to lose games, and you’re in game 79 of 82, and you’ve already lost 63 of them? Probably not.
2. Keyonte George’s career high, shooting feel
The game’s style definitely suited Keyonte George well, though. It allowed him to get a new career high 35 points, as he shot 10-19 from the field, 7-13 from three, and 8-9 from three.
We’ve talked a lot about George in recent days, so no need to expound on his career outlook or defense. But I do think it’s worth noting just how varied his shot diet of 3-point shots is.
Watch the video: George makes a three off a terrible pass to the corner that he saves from going out of bounds, a really tough contested pull-up, a step-in three well behind the line, a one-dribble pull-up in transition, a side-step pull-up with the shot clock running down, a straight pull-up to beat a switch, and a stock-standard catch-and-shoot corner three.
That’s an impressive amount of variety on the kind of shots he’s taking, and he has real comfort and feel for that variety that’s only really matched by Jordan Clarkson among Jazz players. John Collins, Lauri Markkanen, Johnny Juzang, Kyle Filipowski — all of them end up taking a lot of threes per game, but less than one per game is a pull-up three, per the NBA’s tracking data. George takes 3.7 of those shots per game, just ahead of Clarkson’s 3.1 per game rate.
He’s generally only 31.9% on those pull-up threes, though, which pushes those efficiency numbers down. Clarkson shoots 36% on those. (Svi Mykhailiuk shoots 24.5% on his 2.5 pull-up three attempts per game, which is depressing but not surprising.)
The game’s best pull-up shooters make 33% to 40% of those looks, so George does have some improving to do, but it’s certainly imaginable that he gets there. And his ability to take those shots and make them even at a 31.9% rate has significant utility in raising the Jazz’s offensive floor — as the shot clock runs down, getting a 0.9 points per possession opportunity can still be valuable.
3. Finding a defensive playmaker
In Friday’s Triple Team, we talked about how Taylor Hendricks’ abilities as a defensive playmaker have been severely missed for the Jazz this season.
That shows itself in the Jazz’s defense record, too: even though they have one of the NBA’s best shot blockers in Walker Kessler, the team itself ranks dead last in blocks. They also rank dead last in steals generated: only Jared Springer is good at it, but he’s only a late-season pickup who rarely plays. Quite frankly, you just can’t allow your opponents this many clean shots in the NBA; creating some level of havoc is necessary.
Who fits that mold in this year’s draft elsewhere? Well, Cooper Flagg does. If the Jazz get the No. 1 pick, they should draft him. Hot take, I know.
Potential No. 3 or No. 4 selection V.J. Edgecombe has also the defensive playmaking skills that the Jazz desperately need, with a level of athleticism and instinct (two steals per game, for example) that would be really useful for the Jazz. If they fall to No. 5, most of the obvious choices there are either known much more for their offensive games (Tre Johnson, Derik Queen, Kasparas Jakucionis) or play the same position Kessler does (Khaman Maluach).
What about with the No. 20 pick, where the Minnesota Timberwolves’ selection they owe Utah stands now? Again, most mocks are filled with some more offensively-promising talents than defenders. But looking overseas, Joan Beringer, Noa Essengue, and Hugo Gonzalez all might contribute defensively.
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