The Triple Team: 3 thoughts on Jazz vs. Bulls


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SALT LAKE CITY — Three thoughts on the Jazz's 105-96 overtime win over the Chicago Bulls from KSL.com's Utah Jazz beat writer, Andy Larsen.

1. Gordon Hayward was phenomenal tonight

Gordon Hayward put up his best line of the season, a 27-point, 12-rebound, and 7-assist performance. Even better was when Hayward made that impact: in the last 5 minutes and overtime, Hayward scored 13 points, four rebounds, and two assists.

The difficulty of makes was incredibly impressive. Hayward has an amazingly versatile scoring game based on misdirection and guile that works extremely well. Check out these highlights:

.@GordonHayward's HIGHLIGHTS from a 27 point, 12 rebound, 7 assist game.#CHIatUTAhttps://t.co/D2V7jpQ42P — Utah Jazz (@utahjazz) February 2, 2016

Excuse me for leading the witness, but I asked Quin Snyder this question verbatim in the postgame press conference. "Quin, how good is Gordon Hayward?"

"I told him in November that he could keep getting better. I think he believed it and he has worked at it. That is the biggest thing. He has worked at it off-the-court with Johnnie Bryant. He's worked at it watching film, and he has worked at it during the game by being willing to fail. He has been willing to take hard shots. He's been willing to put himself out there and over time when you are as good as he is, you are just going to succeed. You're going to keep getting better, and that's what we're seeing."

A better Gordon Hayward is a little bit scary. "I think I'm an elite player in this league," Hayward said.

Tonight, he joined elite company. Here's the full list of players who have scored at least 25 points, pulled down 12 rebounds, and picked up 7 assists in a game this season: LeBron James, James Harden, Draymond Green, Kevin Durant, Blake Griffin, Russell Westbrook, and now Gordon Hayward.

2. Raul Neto was surprisingly fantastic, too

Raul Neto continued his semi-storybook season with probably his best game of the year, a career-high 14-point performance where he made a number of difficult shots.

I'll be honest: I was surprised when the Jazz chose to bring over Neto this season. Why? Because Neto simply wasn't an elite player in the ACB, the Spanish league that is widely regarded as the second-best basketball league in the world. Usually, even elite players struggle with the transition to the NBA, but Neto's high turnover numbers and low outside shooting numbers made it difficult to see Neto succeeding.

Here are his stats from last year, compared to his stat line coming into tonight's game, adjusted for pace and minutes played.

The Triple Team: 3 thoughts on Jazz vs. Bulls

You can make a case that Neto has become better in the NBA than he was in the ACB. Sure, the scoring is down somewhat, but his eFG% is higher in the NBA, and he's turning over the ball far less frequently. It's a legitimate surprise.

Neto credited his practice with the Jazz's coaching staff on his improvement over the year.

"I think I have way more confidence right now, after all of the practice and everything I've worked on from the beginning of the season until now," Neto said. "I think I just came out aggressive. I think most important is the win, but I'm really happy with my game tonight."

Most important was Neto's defense on Derrick Rose, who shot just 6-21 over the whole game, matching Neto's scoring total by taking 13 more shot attempts. As Snyder said after the game, "Derrick Rose came to play and Raul did a terrific job fighting him the whole time."

In the end, the performance on both ends led to the Jazz outscoring the Bulls by 18 when Neto was on the floor, a game high.

3. Jazz adapt to physical defense.

One concern for the Jazz coming into this game was how they would deal with the Bulls' physical defense. Despite letting go of "the dean of all defense" Tom Thibodeau, the Bulls are still a top-10 defense that relies on forcing a team to take hard shots through limitation of movement.

The Jazz have struggled against exactly that sort of defense this season, and it's been a repeated theme in Triple Teams. When teams got physical with the Jazz, sometimes literally holding them to slow their cuts, the Jazz couldn't figure out how to respond.

Before the game, Snyder impressed upon the team the importance of moving the ball and playing forcefully through the Bulls' disciplined defense. "It requires precision. You're not going to just make a pass and break it down. It's going to have to be something you work at. And if you don't work hard enough, you're going to get low percentage shots."

Tonight, the Bulls did a good job of anticipating the side-to-side Jazz action that puts the defense in motion. Usually, where the Jazz would normally swing the ball across the top of the floor, the Bulls played ball-side defense on the final man, preventing the easy pass. We've seen that approach short-circuit the Jazz's attack before.

But tonight, they were ready with the counters. In the first quarter, the Jazz got two easy backdoor baskets because the Bulls were overplaying that pass. Once they wised up, the Jazz beat the play in the other way, by going back to the strong side to a moving wing player making a cut towards the basket.

That was nice to see. If Utah does make the playoffs, they'll be facing a team that has intimately scouted every aspect of the Jazz's playbook. For the Jazz to be able to execute their second and third options in those situations gives them hope against a prepared defense.

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