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SALT LAKE CITY — Ricky Rubio knows about the in-season jump in production that has occurred over his previous three seasons. He just wishes he could tell you exactly why it happens.
“I don’t know,” Rubio said. “If I would know, I would play the same way I play the second (half), the first (half).”
Last season, he went from being a 32.4 percent 3-point shooter before the All- Star break to a 41 percent shooter after it. In 2017, his 3-point shooting jumped from 28 percent to 35.1 percent. And in 2016, it went from 29.2 percent to 36.1 after the break.
“It’s just getting the rhythm of the season, I guess, and feeling my legs better as the season goes on,” said Rubio, who came into the break shooting 32.2 percent from 3-point range. “I try to be aggressive from the beginning, but I know the important part is now.”
And, really, so do the Jazz as a whole.
Rubio isn’t alone in his post-All-Star improvement. That’s been a staple in Utah since Quin Snyder took over before the 2014-15 season. In all but one of Snyder’s first four seasons, the Jazz had a better winning percentage after the break than before it. And some — like last season’s 18-6 finish — have been quite the dramatic improvement.
You can point to Snyder’s philosophy as one of the reasons.
“The season itself is a little bit of a maze,” Snyder said. “You try to figure out where it takes you. You make a wrong turn, try to correct it and make another right turn. We are going to try and keep learning.”
Snyder said there are always different segments to a season that play into that growth. There's the process of learning about your team, there are trades and injuries, and there's taking advantage of individual improvement.
It’s how teams grow from those types of experiences that lead to them becoming better.
“We can borrow from all those situations and learn about ourselves and try to improve,” Snyder said. “You learn from Game 1 in the playoffs going into Game 2. You learn from Game 1 of the season. You learn from the game after the All-Star break. When I say 'learn,' it means keeps getting better, keep improving. That’s something that’s been a focus for us in past years and remains one.”
Despite an uneven first few months of the season at times, the Jazz find themselves in a good position coming out of the All-Star break. They have the easiest remaining schedule in the Western Conference, according to Tankathon, and 16 of their 25 remaining games are against teams with losing records. Utah has gone 17-6 so far this year against sub-.500 teams.
So another late-season surge could be in the cards.
“We just need to focus on ourselves,” Rudy Gobert said. “We are in a great position. The toughest part of the schedule is behind us. So we just got to take care of ourselves, keep getting better, keep winning games, and we’ll be fine.”
The Jazz are also close to getting back to full strength.
Dante Exum partially participated in practice on Wednesday for the first time since his high-ankle sprain in early January. Before the injury, Exum was playing the best basketball of his career with averages of 9.1 points and 4.3 assists in his previous 12 games — many of which came against top Western Conference teams. Exum has been ruled out of Friday’s game against Oklahoma City, but he is nearing a comeback.
“Dante is a player that has helped us,” Snyder said. “And for him to be in a position to help us again is a positive thing. I know he is excited.”
Another Utah point guard might also be feeling excited, too. Because while Rubio might not know exactly why it happens, this is when he has started to play at his best.
And so have the Jazz.
