Estimated read time: 7-8 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
SALT LAKE CITY — Three thoughts on the Utah Jazz's 112-101 win over the Phoenix Suns from KSL.com's Utah Jazz beat writer, Andy Larsen.
1. Dante Exum's injury
In a preseason game, when the outcome is secondary to how the players will perform during the season, the top story Friday night has to go to Exum's injury. With 1:35 left in the first quarter, Exum went up for a layup, but was landed on by the Suns' T.J. Warren. Because the game wasn't televised, we don't have video of the incident.
But thanks to Deseret News photographer Ravell Call, who was on the scene, we have some pretty good photos of what happened.
Another bad sign: his teammates seem really worried about the injury.
It's a real shame. Exum had looked so promising in early preseason action, and of course, this is a contract year for the young man, still 22 years old. Here's hoping for a speedy recovery.
2. Jazz score points thanks to glass and turnovers
The Jazz didn't shoot particularly well Friday night, only 41.2 percent from the floor. But what they did do was take a ton of shots: 97, to be precise. The highest number of shots the Jazz took in last year's regular season was 93, so that is a really high number for the Jazz.
How did they do it? Through dominating the glass and forcing a ton of turnovers. The Jazz had 19 offensive rebounds in the game, while the Suns only had four. I didn't think that was the result of a lot of luck, either. Everyone on the Jazz team seemed to make a focused effort to control the boards.
It was a combined effort: Gobert had four of those 19 boards, but everyone else on the team had only one or two.
"It should be something that we do, I think especially if we push the ball and attack the rim. Offensive rebounds usually come if you've broken the defense down," Snyder said. "We feel like if we are shooting the ball at the rim in the paint, a lot of times a missed shot is as good as a pass. That's an opportunity that I think out guys have to impact the game offensively."
Phoenix's 20 turnovers were also big, though actually less to do with the Jazz's effort, I felt, and more to do with Phoenix's inexperience.
The Jazz are not going to get nearly 20 offensive rebounds every game, nor are they going to have their opponent gift 20 turnovers. They're not going to shoot nearly 100 shots. But if they can have a consistent advantage in those categories, it will go a long way to make up for inconsistent shooting nights on a team without a lot of spacing or a lead scorer.
3. Donovan Mitchell's inexperience shows
First of all, it wasn't a good situation for Mitchell to be thrown into. After Exum went down, Mitchell became the backup point guard by default in a game where the Jazz already didn't want to play Ricky Rubio a lot of minutes.
But Mitchell struggled with his new role, scoring just eight points on 3-for-16 shooting, adding three turnovers next to only one assist. He also didn't have the greatest defensive game.
"We let up in the third quarter and I let up especially," Mitchell said. "I didn't have good defense on the ball and fighting through screens and we picked it up towards the end. I picked it up, and that's what I'm most proud of is the way I, and we, competed on defense."
On the offensive end, Mitchell was less worried about his shooting night and more concerned about improving his approach as a point guard.
"As far as offense, I've always said I'm not worried how you go 0-16 or 16-16, I think I did all right," Mitchell said.
Mitchell figures to play at least some point guard during Exum's injury, along with Raul Neto and perhaps Alec Burks. Mitchell had a similar thing happen at Louisville, when his teammate Quentin Snider went down for two to three weeks.
The good news is that Snyder was optimistic about Mitchell's growth at the position.
"His efficiency, and not just his shot selection, but his decision-making will continue to improve. I won't say you live with some of that … but you do. You go through situations like this in order to get better," Snyder said.
The big thing is that Mitchell has to stick to his game, even as a point guard. "When you think of a point guard, you think of 10, 12 assists. That's what comes into your head," Mitchell explained. "Instead of trying to go out there and set my career high in assist numbers, I just need to make reads and let the game come to me. I didn't really do that well tonight, but I'll look back on it and keep going from there."
