The Triple Team: Offense, not defense, carries Jazz to 119-112 win over Mavericks


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DALLAS β€” Three thoughts on the Utah Jazz's 119-112 win over the Dallas Mavericks from KSL.com's Jazz beat writer, Andy Larsen.

1. Jazz's offense carries the way this time

The Jazz had dominated this stretch of 24 games because of their defense: in the last 21-3 stretch, they've allowed their opponent to have an offensive rating of over 100 just eight times, and over 110 just once (a win against San Antonio, as the team arrived there at 5:30 a.m. due to plane trouble). That was the only game in which a team had an above-average offense game against the Jazz's defense. Other than that, they repeatedly stifled every team they played.

Thursday night, that wasn't the case: the Mavs scored 117 points per 100 possessions, a performance that would probably be good enough to beat most teams. Most of the Mavs' critical success came from the 3-point line, making 17-32 threes for 53 percent.

But the Jazz's offense was superb, finding open players at the rim and from the 3-point line time and time again. Essentially the entire Jazz starting lineup had success on the offensive end.

Donovan Mitchell led the team with 26 points in a bounce-back performance after a 9-28 shooting night against the Atlanta Hawks on Tuesday night. Mitchell was much more effective at getting to the rim and finishing around and over the Mavericks big men, including several highlight plays like this:

Put 'em in the spin cycle, Donny πŸ” pic.twitter.com/UISzGSkYeO β€” Utah Jazz (@utahjazz) March 23, 2018

Ricky Rubio had another great shooting night, going 8-14 overall and 4-8 from the 3-point line to finish with 22 points. Again, his offense seemed like it carried the Jazz for stretches in the first half when no one else could score.

Ricky with 4 quick ones πŸ‘ pic.twitter.com/Ialc6T7sMv β€” Utah Jazz (@utahjazz) March 23, 2018

Joe Ingles was on triple-double watch and finished with 18 points, 10 assists, and six rebounds.

Finally, a returning Derrick Favors was a big key behind the Jazz's success tonight: 19 points, seven rebounds, and five assists. I loved the way he was willing to pass the ball, especially on big-to-big looks like this one.

Hot potato πŸ₯”πŸ”₯ pic.twitter.com/k5kHRSdobN β€” Utah Jazz (@utahjazz) March 23, 2018

The Jazz needed these offensive performances, but I thought it was a great example of the Jazz players working together to maximize each others' strengths.

2. Active hands on defense

As stated above, tonight wasn't one of the Jazz's best defensive games overall. But I thought that was mostly due to body positioning: sometimes the Jazz helped too much, sometimes the second rotation didn't happen. Either way, there was a man open on the perimeter, and Dallas took full advantage.

But nevertheless, I thought it was a good example of the importance having active hands can have on forcing turnovers. This compilation from NBA's Fantasy team shows all of Rubio, Mitchell, and Rudy Gobert's defensive steals and blocks.

Defense was the focus for this @utahjazz trio, combining for 10 STL & 5 BLK and leading the way in #NBAFantasy!

-@spidadmitchell: 26 PTS, 5 REB, 4 AST, 3 STL - 46 FPTS
-@rudygobert27: 11 PTS, 7 REB, 2 AST, 5 BLK - 43.4 FPTS
-@rickyrubio9: 22 PTS, 5 REB, 3 AST, 5 STL - 42.5 FPTS pic.twitter.com/QVP4pM5Zrb

β€” NBA Fantasy (@NBAFantasy) March 23, 2018

There's a pattern here: keeping active hands off the ball. Check out the first steal in the video above: Mitchell is beat in the pick and roll, so he switches off to Gobert waiting in the paint. But Mitchell doesn't turn off there: he rushes back to recovery and intercepts the dump off pass once Dorian Finney-Smith decides not to challenge Gobert at the rim.

Or how about the play at the 0:23 mark above, where Royce O'Neale has Doug McDermott pretty locked up on the wing. J.J. Barea cuts to get the ball, but McDermott is surprised by how much Rubio stays with Barea for the length of the cut. Rubio gets one deflection, and then cleverly knocks the ball to the other side of Barea to complete the steal.

The play at 2:16 shows both Mitchell and Gobert with active hands to great benefit. Mitchell uses active hands on Barea, forcing Max Kleber to come all the way out to 20 feet from the basket to catch the ball. Then while Barea cuts, Gobert moves his arms to prevent the pass and get a steal.

All in all, the Jazz got 11 steals Thursday night. They're now 11-6 when they get more than 10 in a game.

3. Joe Ingles' 10-assist night

Ingles had 10 assists total Thursday night, but he actually had seven assists in the first quarter alone. He remains one of the Jazz's best playmakers, especially as maybe the primary decision maker when Rubio is out of the game.

Jazz head coach Quin Snyder explained Ingles' success at playmaking tonight. "Because he is shooting the ball so well, people end up having to go over the screens and he is able to get in the lane. When he does that, he has his eyes out, and is looking for his teammates. He is really doing a good job making the right play."

That includes plays like this one:

πŸ—£οΈYeah, big fella‼️#MACU3pic.twitter.com/9Zc2nbd5vL β€” Utah Jazz (@utahjazz) March 23, 2018

Notice how Ingles doesn't even use the screen here, but uses the threat of it to get inside. From there, the defense collapses, and he can just kick it to the open man.

One other note: he's also using his right hand. This isn't from tonight's game, but I loved this graph from Sportradar from last week's Phoenix game showing where Ingles catches the ball and makes plays from.

vs. someone like @JoeIngles7 who loves to mix in off the ball pic.twitter.com/YvsDOaHv6C β€” Sportradar Insight (@RadarInsight) March 21, 2018

As you can see, Ingles likes to catch the ball on the right side and use his dominant hand to move left. If he catches it on the left side, it's usually off numerous screens, and could mean a 3-point shot is on the way.

Dallas, though, overplayed Ingles' left hand, and he took advantage anyway by driving with his right sometimes, getting assists like the one above, or even and-ones:

Joe Ingles: Athlete pic.twitter.com/fI1u0EDXA2 β€” Utah Jazz (@utahjazz) March 23, 2018

Ingles just continues to add to his versatile skill set.

Update: Sportradar sent me Ingles' shot track chart from Thursday night's game. Thanks!

Story checked out again last night pic.twitter.com/zHjA7QrdwF β€” Sportradar Insight (@RadarInsight) March 23, 2018

As you can see, most of the time, he drove to his left, but there were two occasions when he drove to his right, fooling the defense. He's still the biggest off-ball threat going to his left.

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