The Triple Team: 3 thoughts on Jazz vs. Thunder


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SALT LAKE CITY — Three thoughts on the Jazz's 97-95 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder from KSL.com's Utah Jazz beat writer Andy Larsen.

1. Jazz get beaten by star play, their own bad shooting

Russell Westbrook found out that he wasn't named an All-Star starter last Thursday, and weirdly, right in the middle of a five-day break for the Oklahoma City Thunder. That meant Monday night's game was the first one since his snub, and he was determined to show the world that they had made the wrong choice.

But the Jazz had a plan of their own. They wanted to go under every screen on him, keeping their bigs deep in the paint on pick and rolls (well, for most of the game; they trapped for a few possessions), and force him to take long-distance shots. After all, Westbrook is just a 33 percent shooter from mid-range and only 32 percent from deep, so it should be OK, right?

"When he's coming full-speed, I'd rather have him take a long two rather than get something at the rim," Rudy Gobert said.

Two things went wrong. First, Westbrook hit a higher percentage of those shots than he normally does, maybe because they were more open than they usually are. He shot 44 percent from mid-range and 43 percent from downtown. Second, they sent him to the foul line a lot: 17 times in all.

That meant that despite only scoring two points in the paint all night, he still scored 38 points, and even got 10 assists and 10 rebounds too. The Jazz had been one of five teams that he hadn't had a triple-double against, but that is now in the past.

Meanwhile, the Jazz were missing more shots than they normally do. They shot only 5-21 from the 3-point line and only 5-15 from the mid-range. They also only made 18-26 of their free throws, good for 69 percent. A better performance from the line from Rudy Gobert probably means a win for the Jazz.

Look, it's not all shot-making: the Jazz's offense was slowed at times tonight by the defensive combination of Victor Oladipo, Andre Roberson and Steven Adams. That meant that they had to take some tough shots. But those ones with good looks (especially free throws) that they also missed, well, that's just unfortunate.

2. Final play thoughts

With 12.9 seconds left, the Jazz found themselves down by 3 with the ball. That's when they ran this really simple, but effective play to get Gordon Hayward a wide-open 3-point look.

But, of course, Westbrook answered. After the basket, the Thunder took timeout, but chose to inbound the ball at the opposite end of the floor, which I think surprised the Jazz.

Here's the game-winner.
Russell Westbrook with 1.4 seconds left. #ThunderBasketballpic.twitter.com/VHv0y9pLbN

— OKC THUNDER (@okcthunder) January 24, 2017

See how high up the court Adams sets the screen on Hill? That gives Westbrook a chance to run downhill. With Westbrook moving that quickly, Gobert hesitates to step forward to contest the shot, because he knows Westbrook could use his momentum to get to the rim in a flash.

Now, to be clear, it's a very blatant and illegal moving screen by Adams, which is a call that is essentially never made at the end of games. I wish it were, but Adams knows that it's not. Remember, Karl Malone had a similarly crucial illegal screen on the biggest made shot in Utah Jazz history. I'll take the trade-off.

And then on the Jazz's final play, with 1.4 seconds left and down two points, they actually got Alec Burks a pretty open look:

Alec Burks' chance to win the game: pic.twitter.com/GKpKs7AIj4 — Andy Larsen (@andyblarsen) January 24, 2017

The biggest problem was that instead of getting set and shooting a normal shot, Burks took the shot while fading away from the basket. That made what could have been a good set shot much harder. You can see how he releases the ball with about a second left, and he probably had time for more. The shot may have not gone in anyway, but he could have given himself a better chance.

3. Starters seemed tired

It was the third game in four nights for the Jazz, and the starting unit seemed tired as a result.

Or maybe "drained" is the right word, at least according to Quin Snyder. The Jazz started the third quarter slowly, without any points in the first three minutes of the quarter. Snyder went to his bench early, putting in Alec Burks for Joe Ingles and Trey Lyles in for Derrick Favors just two and a half minutes into the half. Dante Exum came in for George Hill just a minute later.

The substitutions worked then, but again, the mostly-starters struggled down the stretch of the game, letting the Thunder score on all of their possessions in the last two minutes.

"That's my job basically, to try and figure out how to help your team and help your players. I thought George (Hill) had a really emotional game the other night and expended a lot of energy. Gordon's been doing that more than anyone, maybe in the league," Snyder said. "All those guys were a little drained. It wasn't physically exhausted, but you could tell."

The two players Snyder named, Hill and Hayward, did have rough nights. Hill finished with only nine points on 2-10 shooting, missing a lot of jump shots that he normally makes. Hayward actually was the team's leading scorer, but he shot just 6-for-17, and finished with a -18 +/- on the night.

The worrying thing is that the Jazz travel tonight, then play tomorrow night in Denver. The Nuggets have done some nice things recently, winning four of their last six. In particular, Nikola Jokic has been fantastic. He's now top-10 in the NBA in PER.

If Rodney Hood were healthy, I wouldn't be surprised if the Jazz just rested some players. Remember, Joe Johnson got the night off nine days ago in a Jazz win, and it's probably time that other Jazz players got the same luxury. On the other hand, they also need every win they can get to try to keep home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs.

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