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SALT LAKE CITY — Quin Snyder wishes it wasn’t the case, but his team has once again shown that it can handle adversity.
Injuries to three point guards? Apparently, no problem — at least when you have Donovan Mitchell.
Second half deficits? Also, not a huge issue — at least with the league’s best defense since the beginning of December.
Utah’s current injury-riddled four-game winning streak has taught the Jazz things they already knew — Mitchell is special and Gobert is a game changer — but it’s also providing the chance to find out some new things about their squad.
And over the last two games, rookie Grayson Allen has made the most of his opportunities.
“Grayson came in and gave us some great minutes on both ends of the court,” Kyle Korver said following Utah's 100-94 win over Detroit.
In the third quarter, Detroit’s Stanley Johnson stepped around Jae Crowder and took off for a layup. But the ball never reached the hoop. Allen met him high at the rim and blocked the shot out of the air.
“(Jae) made a great play to cut him off and kind of slow him up,” Allen said. “So his drive was kind of choppy and allowed me to get my feet set and go up. At that point, his only option was to lay it up.”
An option that Allen took away.
Allen scored 8 points in 20 minutes and hit two 3-pointers in the win. And for the most part, he played solid defense. The Jazz have never doubted Allen's abilities on the offensive end, but his defense wasn't good enough early on in his rookie year to get consistent minutes.
So Utah sent Allen to the G-League and gave him the assignment of learning how to defend at the NBA level.
“For Grayson, raising his awareness of all the different places that he has to play defense; just of the ball being prepared a ready allows him to close out in a better position. He was fouling a lot early,” Snyder said. “All the habits, he has been working on those things.”
In the last two games, Allen has averaged 17.5 minutes since coming back from an ankle injury. Snyder trusting him enough to play that number of minutes — especially in the fourth quarter — shows that Allen has started to figure things out.
And that playing time has allowed him to show that he’s got some trickery in his game, too.
In the fourth quarter, Allen chased down a pass in the corner. He stood on one leg as he grabbed the ball. It looked like he was saving the ball — that was the point. His defender backed off, expecting him to pass it back, but instead, Allen casually positioned himself for an open 3-point attempt.
“I’ve done that in pick-up a few times,” Allen said. “So I didn’t really need to go up on one leg. But kind of acted like it and when he backed off. I thought I might as well shoot it, I just made one.”
He missed it, but over the last two games, Allen has shown he could be able to help the Jazz — even when everyone gets back healthy.
“You never want guys to get hurt, but in the big picture, it always plays for the betterment of the team because guys get opportunities, you play different lineups,” Korver said. “You never know what the playoffs are going to bring. That’s what it’s all about. Where do we find the groups, the rotations that we want before the playoffs?”
