The Triple Team: 3 thoughts on Jazz vs. Clippers


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SALT LAKE CITY — Three thoughts on the Jazz's 104-78 win over the Los Angeles Clippers from KSL.com's Utah Jazz beat writer, Andy Larsen.

1. Jazz win battle of depth against Clippers

Tonight was a classic preseason battle of two teams that were missing most of their good players. The Jazz didn't play Gordon Hayward (fractured left ring finger), Rodney Hood (sprained left hand), Derrick Favors (left knee bone bruise/IT band syndrome), or Alec Burks (weirdly long rehab from surgery). And the Clippers didn't play Chris Paul (minor sprained thumb, rest), Blake Griffin (rest), DeAndre Jordan (rest), Alan Anderson (rest), or Brice Johnson (herniated disc).

So the battle was between the backups for the Jazz and the backups for the Clippers. Last year, this matchup for the Jazz went incredibly poorly: the Jazz lost a similar game they needed in April when Doc Rivers rested the big three. The Clippers, though, lost probably their second best bench player in Cole Aldrich this offseason, while the Jazz reloaded with George Hill, Joe Johnson, and Boris Diaw.

The Jazz's defense was pretty excellent all game long against the Clippers, allowing only a 78 offensive rating. Even when the Jazz's third-unit played, the Raul Neto/Dante Exum/Chris Johnson/Joel Bolomboy/Henry Sims lineups still shut down the Clippers' second unit.

They did so with a lot of switching. Perimeter pick-and-rolls were switched very frequently, because the Jazz figured that players like Austin Rivers, Ray Felton, Wesley Johnson, and even Paul Pierce couldn't really hurt them in isolation situations, even with a matchup advantage. The Jazz were right, and the Clippers' wings were bad.

There was definitely an element of perfunctoriness about tonight's game. Clearly, Rivers' stars would have preferred to skip the game. And Quin Snyder, when asked today at shootaround if there was a balance between keeping players healthy and getting ready for the regular season, said that "I don't think there's a balance. I think it's about being healthy." Bring on the regular season.

2. Point guards playing well

The Jazz's point guard situation, one of the worst in the league last year, might be one of the best in the league this season.

A lot of that is thanks to George Hill, who continues to run the point pretty effectively for the Jazz. Snyder was asked after the game about Hill's play so far this preseason.

"He's such an unselfish player, and I think he's so conscious of leading and running the team and doing all the things a point guard needs to do, that there's times when I think he needs to be more aggressive. I thought he got more aggressive tonight, and it showed in the third quarter." Overall, Hill scored 11 points.

Dante Exum's return continues to be a major story. Exum's floating in and out of games a little bit: there are times when he's leaving dangerous players like Jamal Crawford or J.J. Redick on defense, and occasionally stays passive in the offense. But there are times, like tonight's fourth quarter, when he realizes that it's his time to shine. In that quarter, Exum picked up 10 points and five assists, playing aggressively in getting to the line and finding teammates around the rim.

Exum talked earlier today about the fatigue he's experiencing for spurts, so it was good to see him be so aggressive in the fourth quarter of a game, especially as he played for the entire quarter.

Shelvin Mack's on hyper drive right now. He scored 14 points in 16 minutes and threw three assists to boot. He's being super aggressive, and I wonder if that's because of his new competition in Hill and Exum: he wants to earn minutes. Mack also had the game's highest plus-minus: the Jazz outscored the Clips by 23 points while he was on the court.

Neto played well, too, though was sometimes too wild with his shot selection. His three steals helped the Jazz. He'll continue to be a role-player pest defensively, in the Pablo Prigioni mold.

3. Rudy Gobert, again

Through five preseason games, here are Rudy Gobert's per-36 minute stats: 22.2 points, 13.8 rebounds, 3.0 blocks on 60 percent shooting from the field and 78 percent shooting from the line.

The Jazz aren't really running plays for Gobert, but he's doing such a nice job at rolling and making himself available for passes that he's getting a ton of opportunities. That, plus his always-solid offensive rebound putback game, means that he's scoring a lot of points.

Gobert's also picking up a ton of rebounds, especially with Favors out. That means he's usually playing as the only paint-bound big man, and he's doing a great job of keeping the Jazz ahead on the glass.

If Gobert really can keep that level of performance up through the regular season, he'd be a sure All-Star and one of the best players in the game. The Jazz's sketchy competition so far probably diminishes that somewhat, though. Gobert's best performances have come against the Suns and the Clippers without DeAndre Jordan, not defensive juggernauts. We'll see if he continues his great play against Portland Wednesday, always his toughest matchup throughout his career.

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