Estimated read time: 3-4 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 Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information.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.
MEMPHIS — On Friday, Mike Conley showed exactly why Utah went after him at the trade deadline.
And also why Memphis didn’t let him go so easily.
“He kind of just feels the game,” Donovan Mitchell said of Conley. “That’s why I respect his game. He's one of those guys that kind of defers and when he feels the need to attack, he attacks.”
He needed to attack in the fourth quarter. And even with Mitchell scoring a game-high 38 points, it was too much to overcome. Conley scored 13 of his 28 points in the final frame to lead Memphis to a 114-104 victory over the Jazz (37-28) at FedExForum.
“He’s a good player,” Jazz coach Quin Snyder said. “They were able to get in the lane. When that happens, not a lot of good is going to come of it.”
And that was the case on Friday. Memphis came into the game with the worst offensive rating in the league and facing a defensive unit that, by some metrics, is the best in the NBA.
Apparently, no one told the Grizzlies.
They hung 114 points on the Jazz’s vaunted defense and finished with an offensive rating of 118.8, per cleaningtheglass.com.
So even though Mitchell was 12-of-24 from the field for 38 points and the Jazz set a franchise record by firing off 48 3-point attempts (they hit 18 of them), the main talking points after the game were how they just didn’t have it defensively.
Derrick Favors, who had a major drop off from his recent performances by scoring just three points, said the team was a “step slow.”
Mitchell that the Jazz made “too many mistakes — getting beat back door not going over screens.”
And Snyder said the team wasn’t as urgent or alert as they needed to be on the defensive end.
“We didn't do a good enough job defensively,” Snyder said. “They got by us too easily.”
It may have been a case of a team looking a little ahead. The Jazz have the easiest remaining schedule in the league, but that doesn’t mean much if they drop games they are supposed to win. And that’s what happened in Memphis.
“We can’t take teams lightly and think that we are just going to come in here and win,” Mitchell said. “They are playing free, they are having fun. We have to be prepared to get everyone's best shot from here till the end of the season."
The Grizzlies outplayed the Jazz throughout the entire game, leading for the majority of the contest, including all of the remaining three quarters. Utah trailed by as many as 16 points.
The Jazz, behind Mitchell’s 20-point fourth quarter, were able to keep within striking distance for much of the final frame. But couldn’t get over the hump — and they know why.
“We had a couple clean looks that I think were good shots that we didn't make and when that happens on the other end, you have to get stops,” Snyder said.
And the Jazz didn’t.
Jonas Valanciunas had 27 points and seven rebounds winning the individual matchup with Rudy Gobert down low. Gobert finished with just nine points on the night.
And that lack of offensive production was the norm for the Jazz. Utah shot just 42.7 percent on the night as they struggled to find lanes due to Memphis clogging the paint and their own poor spacing at times. And even when they had open looks, they missed more than they made.
“We were just missing shots that we normally make,” Favors said. “They were making shots, it just wasn’t our day tonight.”
But it was Conley’s.
Game notes: The Jazz were without starting point guard Ricky Rubio on Friday as he sat out with a tight left hip ... The Jazz announced that Dante Exum, who has been sidelined since Jan. 5 will return to practice this week.
