The Triple Team: Three thoughts on Utah Jazz vs. Boston Celtics 7/6/15


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SALT LAKE CITY — Welcome to the Triple Team! After every game, I'll break down three topics from that night's game, flush with stats, highlights, quotes, and more. Let's get started.

1. Fans came to the Summer League in record breaking numbers.

The Jazz announced an attendance of 10,215 for Monday's Utah Jazz Summer League game, and I don't think that's an exaggeration. The entire lower bowl (capacity: about 8,900) was full of enthusiastic, hard-core Jazz fans and the sides of the upper bowl started to fill in, too. The lower bowl was officially announced as sold out around 4:30 p.m. before the 7 p.m. start.

Not only is that impressive on it's own for a summer league game, it might be the all-time NBA Summer League attendance record. The Rocky Mountain Revue was played for 25 years at venues including East High (capacity: not many), Westminster (capacity: about 1,000), Salt Lake Community College (capacity: 5,000), and even a couple of years in just the lower bowl of the Delta Center (capacity: 9,000). Today's mark of greater than 10,000 beats them all.

But it's not just the RMR record that was broken today: Las Vegas's summer league set its all-time daily record last year, at 8,013 fans. Orlando's Summer League has never even allowed fans in the building. And while a variety of other summer leagues have existed in the NBA's long history, most of them have played to crowds in the hundreds, at best. In short, it's possible that today's summer league attendance was an all-time NBA record.

It's yet another data point in the "Jazz fans are pretty special" narrative. The fans got excited by the action and the players couldn't help but notice.

"It's fun. I knew it was going to be packed," second-year Jazzman Rodney Hood said after the game. "You know, Utah fans always, regardless of what time of the year it is, they're always going to come out and support. They really pushed us over the hump tonight. It was fun just being out there in front of them."

Center Jack Cooley was buzzing about it after the game too.

"It was exciting to be able to go out there and play a tough game, especially in front of that crowd," Cooley said. "I mean, jeez, that was pretty fun."

2. The Jazz won the game through rebounding

The biggest advantage for the Jazz tonight came on the glass, as they outrebounded the Celtics 51-31, despite actually missing more shots overall. The Jazz's 16 offensive rebounds, along with a propensity for team rebounds with loose-ball fouls, meant that they had 19 opportunities for second chance points, while the Celtics had just 5. Winning that second-chance point battle 24-7 explains nearly the entire scoring difference in tonight's game.

Most of the credit goes to two players: Jack Cooley and Rodney Hood, who combined for 11 offensive rebounds and 23 total rebounds. Cooley's performance was extra impressive, as he played only 16 minutes while accumulating 13 rebounds. That's awesome. Remember, Cooley actually broke the D-League's rebounding record in March with a 29-board performance, a remarkable game that even got the attention of Rudy Gobert.

@rudygobert27 can't let you have all the fun buddy. — Jack Ryan Cooley (@JackCooligan45) March 14, 2015

If Cooley keeps this up, he deserves an NBA spot. Hustling, elite rebounding bigs are valuable commodities in the league, and if he can keep it up against bigger competition (the tallest player in Boston's summer starting lineup was 6'8''), then he'll be a pleasant surprise for the Jazz moving forward. Cooley's only 24 and may have some development left as well.

Rodney Hood's rebounding was a detail from a nice overall game. Hood averaged just 4 rebounds per 36 minutes last season — not a very good rate for a player of his 6'8" stature. If he can consistently help his team by adding extra possessions here and there, he'll have a real secondary game to go with his budding scoring talent.

3. Dante Exum answered questions

Dante Exum came into summer league with the most to prove of any Jazz player: after struggling hugely on the offensive end all of last season, he needed a good game to prove his development was still moving in the right direction.

Exum delivered; his 20 point performance was a new high as a pro. But perhaps more impressive was how he accumulated his points: from the free throw line. Exum shot 10 free throws tonight, making 9. Since Dec. 16 of last season, Dante Exum only shot 9 free throws total (!) in 57 total games of play. That's insane. But Exum deserved those FT attempts tonight with a much more aggressive offensive performance, both attacking the basket as well as shooting from the outside.

Exum also contributed in ways beyond his point total. He distributed the ball well, including this no-look pass in the game's first few minutes:

He also defended well, using his length and athleticism to bother the Celtics:

Overall, it was good to see Exum have his best offensive night as a professional, while still maintaining his defensive focus. Exum's performance showed on the scoreboard: when Exum was on the floor, the Jazz outscored the Celtics by 31 points. While the ankle injury (to be evaluated tomorrow) at the end of the night will worry some Jazz fans, Dante showed tremendous progress already in game 1.

The Jazz play again at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, July 7, and Thursday, July 9.

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Andy Larsen

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