The Triple Team: Joe Johnson carries Jazz to Game 4 win


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SALT LAKE CITY — Three thoughts on the Jazz's 105-98 win over the Los Angeles Clippers from KSL.com's Utah Jazz beat writer Andy Larsen.

1. Joe Johnson comes through again

With the Jazz down 87-80 with seven minutes left to play, the Jazz needed something special to get back into a low-possession game that they were playing without their best scorer Gordon Hayward.

Joe Johnson delivered. He scored 11 straight points and went on a personal 11-3 run to deliver the lead to the Jazz.

ISO Joe has come alive late in the 4Q, scoring 11 straight points for the @UtahJazz! 🔥🔥🔥#NBAPlayoffspic.twitter.com/YvxMG4P6Ye — NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) April 24, 2017

All of those shots are really difficult. The first was a contested floater; admittedly, the contest came from Raymond Felton, but Johnson had to work to get that up with Felton's hand in the right place. Then it was a pull-up 3-point shot as he came around a screen. Then it was another quick floater over the Clippers' best perimeter defender, Luc Mbah a Moute, and his incredible wingspan. Then Johnson went to the turnaround fadeaway jump shot to finish in the paint, then finally finished with a third floater from 11 feet away.

While Johnson was mostly done with the scoring after that (he did help seal the game with two more FTs late), he then became a facilitator.

Imagine having scored 11 straight points to give your team the lead and then passing up the chance at this look to get Joe Ingles a better look from three.

Imagine having scored 11 points in a row and then making this pass to get your teammate a better look: pic.twitter.com/bDz2mv8m8r — Andy Larsen (@andyblarsen) April 24, 2017

And then when the defense helped from one pass away on Johnson in the post on J.J. Redick, he passed to the other Duke player on the floor, Rodney Hood, for the open three.

This one, the Clippers just help off Rodney Hood too much from one pass away pic.twitter.com/1BNWHylsos — Andy Larsen (@andyblarsen) April 24, 2017

And finally, here's one more pass for a wide-open corner three with the whole Clippers team focused on him.

And finally, on this assist, the whole Clippers team is just staring at Johnson, which makes the Jingles 3 open and easy: pic.twitter.com/cfQUz3JdYe — Andy Larsen (@andyblarsen) April 24, 2017

I think I like these assists even more than the 11 straight points. Those shots were hard, and it was just Johnson's talent that got them to go in. But then he took advantage once the Clippers overreacted, and just made the right play time after time.

In the end, Johnson finished with 28 points on 17 shots, five assists, four rebounds and a steal. 13 points, three assists, and all three rebounds came in the last seven minutes of the game.

Given Game 1's buzzer-beater, if the Jazz don't have Joe Johnson, the Jazz would have been swept out of the playoffs. Because of him, the Jazz still have at least two more games to play.

2. Jazz centers step up big

On Friday, I wrote about the awful production the Jazz got from their center position in Game 3, and how much it was hurting the Jazz on both ends of the floor. The situation could not have been more different on Sunday.

First of all, Rudy Gobert returned in Game 4 and started. In his first game back, he put up 15 points and 13 rebounds in under 24 minutes on the floor. He looked very close to the Gobert that we knew from 81 regular season games: scoring from rolls to the rim and offensive rebounds. But that he's still capable of these sorts of finishes is crazy for a big man of his size and length:

Dude can do it all...#TakeNote#LACatUTApic.twitter.com/KKskP8kkkv — Utah Jazz (@utahjazz) April 24, 2017

He really looked stifling on defense as well. He picked up two blocks and moved well on the court to stay in front of Clippers smalls and bigs alike. It was incredibly encouraging, and it looks like we'll get something approaching 100 percent Rudy Gobert for the rest of the playoffs.

"I didn't think I would be back this early," Gobert said. "But I put the work in and the training staff, my guys, they helped me heal so quick and it's been great."

And Gobert said his knee wasn't in any pain after the game, either. "I feel pretty good. It's going to get better every day, and I feel good right now," Gobert said. "I've got one more day to recover too."

That's great news for the Jazz. Good work from a maligned training staff to get Gobert ready in time to contribute, just when the Jazz needed him most.

Gobert was great, but he didn't finish the game because Derrick Favors was so good, too. Off the bench, he finished with 17 points on 7-for-10 shooting and added six rebounds and two steals. He looked alive and ready to prove something after Game 3's ugly performance. He moved well on offense and defense, hit shots from the midrange, and finished well around the glass. I thought his screens were good too.

Clearly, Favors benefited from playing only 24 minutes, rather than the 38 he played in Game 3. With Gobert projected to be healthy the rest of the way, it looks like the Jazz's center rotation is a plus once again. The Jazz outscored the Clippers 58 to 36 in the paint tonight, reversing a trend from the rest of the series.

3. Gordon Hayward out

And in what has to be the unluckiest run of a franchise in recent memory, as soon as Rudy Gobert returned to the Jazz's rotation, the team's other star, Gordon Hayward, had to leave the game due to food poisoning.

You could see Hayward was struggling in his nine minutes and wasn't really able to be his usual self. All three of his shots were catch-and-shoot threes, but his movement and everything else was just not there. After the first half, Dennis Lindsey escorted him out of the arena to get medical treatment.

"He was basically on his back up until game time. He had IVs and whatever kind of anti-nausea stuff they were giving him to try to get him in a better place," Snyder said. "He wanted to play and got out there and just didn't have anything. So he ended up going back to the locker room, and I think he threw up again. They put him in a dark room with a towel over his head and that was it."

I suppose that the good news is that if it is food poisoning, as stated, Hayward should be noncontagious and would go on the team's flight to Los Angeles tomorrow for Game 5. But even he is healthy, he'll still not be 100 percent: being that degree of sick all day can have an impact on your body for days to come.

What a dramatic series, though. It's had everything. Four close games, scary injuries, teams being forced to adjust, buzzer-beaters, hard play throughout, stars coming up big when it matters most. And after the Jazz tied the series at 2-2, we're guaranteed two more games of it. It's a great time to be a basketball fan.

For more leftover thoughts from Andy about Sunday night's game, listen to the KSL Court Report podcast.

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