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DALLAS — Three thoughts from Utah Jazz beat writer Andy Larsen on the Jazz's 102-93 defeat to the Dallas Mavericks.
1. Jazz's poor defense gives Mavericks too big of a lead
The Jazz were dreadful for about 11 minutes in this game: from about the 5 minute mark of the 2nd quarter to about the 6 minute mark of the 3rd quarter. During that stretch, the Jazz gave up 38 points on defense, allowing the Mavs to shoot 15-20 from the field and 5-7 from beyond the arc.
What happened during the stretch? Well, the Jazz couldn't contain the Mavs' pick and roll, especially as run by Deron Williams. Williams was in the game for all of this stretch, and he tore whoever was guarding him apart by using those screens intelligently. Again, in that 11 minute stretch, Williams scored 12 points, and added four assists, three rebounds, two 3-pointers, and one steal.
If this Williams were the Williams of yore, you'd excuse it as a superstar doing his thing. But it's not. This is the 31-year-old, post-injury version who puts up an average of 13 points and 5 assists per game. Raul Neto, Rodney Hood, and Alec Burks took turns on Williams during this stretch, and all were found pretty lacking. All three have shown defensive flashes to be better than they showed, but none got it done tonight.
Speaking of old men, Dirk Nowitzki was brilliant for these 11 minutes too, scoring 13 points on 5 shots. Both Rudy Gobert and Derrick Favors were in this game for the entire stretch, but as the Jazz's guards gave up penetration time and time again, they had to leave Dirk to be open. And repeatedly, Dirk took advantage.
2. Jazz need more from their supporting cast
Tonight, it was Derrick Favors and Gordon Hayward who carried the load offensively for the Jazz. Favors continued his steady play with 18 points on 9-14 shooting (by the way, it defies belief that Favors didn't ever go to the free throw line tonight), while Hayward finished with 22 points on 8-14 shooting.
The Jazz needed a third guy to step up offensively. Usually, that's either Rodney Hood or Alec Burks, but tonight, they combined for 9-28 shooting.
The Jazz haven't gotten any production this year at all from either the 3rd or 4th big slot, nor the 4th or 5th wing slot. That's hurting the team a lot. Trevor Booker's been pretty awful, Trey Lyles has looked like a lost rookie on both ends of the floor, and Joe Ingles, Chris Johnson, and Elijah Millsap aren't making contributions.
Ironically, tonight was the first night that the Jazz's bench has been outscored so far this season, showing the scoring power of the normally dangerous Burkcourt (Burke and Burks). It's just everything beyond them that's been a mess.
The good news, I suppose, is that long-term improvement of the back end of the roster should be a relatively easy way to add a significant number of wins to the Jazz's overall total.
3. Why Dallas is so successful right now
That's now Dallas 6th win in a row, a stretch that's seen them defeat the Clippers, the Rockets, and Celtics, and now the Jazz. They're getting it done with a surprisingly effective defense that owes so much to Rick Carlisle's scheming.
After all, you wouldn't expect a core group involving the Mavs' old roster to be able to defend well, I'd only consider Wesley Matthews and Zaza Pachulia to be really definitively plus defenders on their roster.
But Dallas is blowing up plays by going under screens at every level. Right now, they're allowing the most three point shots of any team in the league due to this scheme, but actually have the league's 4th-best three point defense, percentage-wise. They're baiting teams into taking pull-up three point shots, in other words, and I think it's working. Meanwhile, going under the screen forces a lot of inefficient one-on-one play if teams do try to go inside.
You can make a really convincing case that Carlisle is the league's second-best coach, behind the legend that is Gregg Popovich. He pulled off an improbable title due to his scheming, and has moved the Mavs to 3rd in the Western Conference with this roster. That's pretty impressive.
