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MINNEAPOLIS — Three thoughts on the Jazz's 94-92 win over the Minnesota Timberwolves from KSL.com's Utah Jazz beat writer, Andy Larsen.
1. Jazz end game on 11-0 run to win
This looked like one of the most disappointing losses of the season, when the Jazz were down 92-83 with only 3:20 left to go. And then the comeback started on the back of Derrick Favors. He scored on a layup with 3:10 left, then nailed about a 19-foot jumper to get the lead down to 5. The biggest shot of the game, though, was his 3-pointer from the corner with the shot clock winding down, just Favors' third 3-point make of his career. Both of those jump shots were assisted by Gordon Hayward, by the way.
"I worked on it all summer, I stepped up confident and made it," Favors said.
After that, it was two free throws from George Hill, thanks to the bonus situation, and then Rudy Gobert had an impressive tip-in where he wasn't looking at the basket.
"It's funny, it didn't really feel like there was a marked play where something turned," Quin Snyder said. But the real key to the Jazz's comeback was holding the Wolves to no points at the end.
And honestly, the Wolves helped the Jazz out a lot with their bad execution, shot selection and missed free throws at the end of the game. Minnesota got nothing in the paint, took a bunch of contested threes, a couple of contested mid-range jumpers, and put themselves in a position where Favors' scoring burst could hurt them.
The biggest mistake was Zach Lavine's. With 15 seconds left, he picked the ball up in the backcourt, then dribbled and dribbled until there were two seconds left, then stepped inside for a contested 20-footer that he missed. Down by two, he needs to attack sooner there, or take a three, or run a play, or something. That's just not good offense.
2. But man, the Jazz were bad before that
The last 4 minutes really saved the Jazz's performance for the first 44 minutes. To get to that deficit, especially in the fourth quarter, required a lot of poor play from a lot of the Jazz's players. To just break it down:
- Hayward missed a couple of shots he usually makes, but then I thought he took a few bad looks too.
- Rodney Hood basically was invisible tonight: only 3 points, 1-6 shooting, and played only 21 minutes due to foul trouble. He lost Lavine multiple times throughout the night, either on off-ball defense or by just not following him through screens. Joe Ingles ended the game, and it was probably the right decision. He's been missing over the last week or so, and it's hurt the Jazz greatly.
- Joe Johnson was pretty unimpactful.
- Shelvin Mack was bad. He didn't score, didn't defend well, though did pick up two assists. He was a team-low -8. He's been too up-and-down, and if he plays this poorly, he's going to lose his backup PG spot.
- Alec Burks only played seven minutes, but showed some good and some bad. On one hand, his attack of the basket, making a shot while getting fouled was classic Burks. On the other hand, his early shot-clock inefficient pull-up 20-footers were also classic Alec Burks. "He's not there yet," Snyder said. "But you don't get there unless you play."
- Trey Lyles was really good offensively, but was backpedalling a lot on defense, ceding the paint to Minnesota drives.
- That meant Boris Diaw played in the fourth quarter, which was weird because he couldn't stay with the Wolves' bigs defensively, or make a shot on offense.
Anyway, I think David Locke hit the nail on the head with this:
They don't have much time to work on it, though. They won't have shootaround tomorrow because of the back-to-back, then they play a tough Memphis team that will absolutely punish the Jazz if they make this many mistakes again.
3. How about George Hill?
You could tell George Hill wasn't his normal self for the first three quarters of the game. His jump shot wasn't falling, and then defensively was less impactful than we've seen when he's at full strength.
Coming into the game, the Jazz wanted to limit Hill's lengthy stints on the court. After all, he hasn't been eating much at all since busting his lip and getting a concussion a week ago.
But then Hill wanted to make an impact. He asked Snyder to keep him in the game in the middle of the fourth, and scored 10 points in the game's final quarter. And instead of playing 3-5 minute stints, he played a 12 minute one to end the game. He ended up leading the team in scoring and assists, with 19 and seven, respectively.
Hill's mantra right now is "mind over matter," and it shows. Thanks to his efforts, and those of his teammates (okay, and some gifts from the Wolves), the Jazz made the 4th quarter run at the last possible moment and won the game.
