The Triple Team: Listless Warriors blown out by brilliant Jazz by 40


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SALT LAKE CITY — Three thoughts on the Utah Jazz's 119-79 win over the Golden State Warriors from KSL.com's Jazz beat writer, Andy Larsen.

1. Ball movement slices through disinterested Warriors

Coming into tonight's game, the Jazz obviously had more to play for than the Warriors. While a win for the Jazz represented the path forward towards home court advantage in the first round, the Warriors are locked into the No. 2 seed either way.

So what do you do with a team that's not quite motivated? You give them opportunities to quit on the play. You make it hard for them to defend. You put them through hard screens, you pass the ball ten times per possession to make the defense scramble, and you play physically on the boards.

The Jazz did all of that early and often on Tuesday, making the Warriors give up much earlier than they expected. The ball movement was legitimately beautiful.

Allons-y, Rudy\#TakeNotepic.twitter.com/aBAiFRKr0D — x - Utah Jazz (@utahjazz) April 11, 2018

This isn't that complicated of a play: it's really just a handoff play with Derrick Favors and Joe Ingles. But Favors' ability to roll makes Zaza Pachulia make a tough decision, and then Rudy Gobert is free to dunk the ball. It happens on the game's first play.

This play is also pretty obvious, but I thought it showed off the Jazz's ethos a little bit. Ingles has the ball and enough space to shoot, but he passes it off to an open Donovan Mitchell. Mitchell has enough space to shoot, but he passes it off to an open Ricky Rubio. And Rubio has enough room to shoot, but he passes it off to an open Favors with no one in his area code. He sinks the open three.

Favors hits a three. @kylegoon pointed out to me that the Jazz pass it from highest 3-point percentage to lowest 3-point percentage here, which is fun and pretty representative of the Jazz's ethos. It works! pic.twitter.com/OMYa4HmI9W — Andy Larsen (@andyblarsen) April 11, 2018

Now, you look at that play, and it's funny: the Jazz actually pass it step-wise from their best to their worst 3-point shooter. But the Jazz don't really look at it like that. It's like they're all part of a hive mind, and every player just wants to do their best to find their teammates open. It's tremendously fun basketball to watch.

It's also just because the Jazz got to play 5-on-4 for like 10 seconds because Klay Thompson didn't run back. Again, the lackluster effort made it easy for the Jazz to take advantage.

"I don't want to read anything into tonight, whether it's that we got 'X' rebounds or did this that or the other thing," Jazz head coach Quin Snyder said. "It's more about us getting a win we needed."

2. Donovan Mitchell setting rookie records

Donovan Mitchell is going to be on SportsCenter for three reasons tonight.

First, he came into Vivint Arena wearing this hoodie, made for him by Adidas.

Savage. (Via @SLAMonline) pic.twitter.com/M74JHyoCEX — NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) April 10, 2018

That's a shot back at Ben Simmons, who spent last year on the Sixers' roster but not on the court. Adidas knew that Mitchell wearing something like that would cause the NBA internet to explode, and mission accomplished.

"Adidas, we just wanted to have fun with it," Mitchell said. "That's all it is, having fun with it. I'm blessed to be in this spot, to be in consideration, but why not have fun with it as well."

In the first half, he had some incredible highlights, including this one where he sent last year's defensive player of the year Draymond Green into a Gobert screen, causing him to fall to the ground.

"Come on. That's ridiculous." -@mharpring15#TakeNotepic.twitter.com/Rub9Fr9iWz — x - Utah Jazz (@utahjazz) April 11, 2018

I don't know if Gobert really pushed Green, if Green was flopping, or if Green's ankle's just got busted. Regardless, if a player ends up on the court like Green just did there, in that kind of matchup, that kind of thing gets noticed.

Third, he set the NBA's all-time rookie record for 3-point shots made in a season with 186, passing Portland's Damian Lillard.

"The best part of Donovan breaking the record is that he doesn't really care about records," Snyder said after the game. "I think the record Donovan cares about is our team's record." He has one more opportunity to best Lillard on Wednesday, but this time, it's for home-court advantage in the first round.

3. Klay Thompson's big role

Want to know something crazy? Klay Thompson played over 35 minutes in that game, despite it meaning nothing at all to the Warriors. And it wasn't just how much he played, it was when he played: the Warriors trailed by 39 points and yet he still was put back in with 6:52 left.

I couldn't figure out why, until Twitter user @nbaayy pointed it out: Thompson came into Tuesday's game averaging 20.0 points per game. He only had 19 when he entered. He scored and then took fouled to take himself out of the game. It completed an ugly 9-27 contest when his defenders really took him out of the contest.

It doesn't really matter if a player has a 20 point per game scoring average, but it definitely looks good for all sorts of resume builders: All-Star appearances, come contract time, maybe even an All-NBA guard.

People say that Thompson is truly a team guy, but it's still weird that it would be so important to him to chase that number. Maybe it meets a clause in his shoe deal to give him more money or something like that.

Thompson will be a free agent in 2019, and he's someone the Jazz have always admired. If he doesn't sign an extension with Golden State, the Jazz might legitimately have a chance to sign him in the summer of 2019. They also have a pretty talented shooting guard already, but a Mitchell/Thompson backcourt could be pretty great.

Extra: Possible playoff outcomes after Wednesday

There are four games left in the Western Conference to be played that might matter for the Jazz's seeding: Jazz/Trail Blazers, Pelicans/Spurs, Thunder/Grizzlies, and Nuggets/Timberwolves. Here's what would happen in each of the 16 remaining scenarios.

The easy way to look at it: barring an OKC loss to the woeful Memphis Grizzlies, the Jazz will be playing the Thunder somehow. If they win, they'll start at home as the 3 seed, if they lose, they'll start on the road as the 5 seed.

Here's the odds of the Jazz getting each seed and playing each opponent, calculated from FiveThirtyEight's game odds.

Playoffs madeJazz opponent
3rd seed39.00%OKC90.0%
4th seed6.10%NOP3.6%
5th seed54.90%SAS3.9%
MIN1.0%
DEN1.5%

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