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NEW YORK CITY — Quin Snyder thought worrying about Bojan Bogdanovic’s shooting was silly when he struggled a bit during the preseason.
“That got answered pretty quick,” Snyder said.
He thought it was even more foolish to look at Bogdanovic’s first four games after the All-Star break and worry about him being in an extended slump.
But he did have a suggestion for Bogdanovic.
“Usually when you dive into something else, your own game has a tendency to evolve and your play improves,” Snyder said last week after Bogdanovic shot 27% in his first four games back from the break. “… In Bojan's case, I have every confidence that he is going to play well.”
On Monday night in Utah's road win over the Cavs, Bogdanovic threw himself into something else.
He was asked to guard Kevin Love — and that meant battling with him in the post. He opted to be a playmaker, registering five assists in the first quarter alone. And so it was no surprise to Snyder when his shot came around.
Bogdanovic was 10 of 19 from the field, hit five 3-pointers and finished with 28 points. But it was the other aspects of his game — the defense, the seven rebounds, the six assists — that really stood out to his coach.
“The thing about his performance tonight was, first of all, he passed the ball early,” Snyder said. “The other thing is that he really worked. His post defense — there were possessions where he fronted Love and got around him, went to the other side. He really competed defensively. Those two things. We have talked about throwing yourself in the game and the shot just comes. Because he can shoot.”
When it came to his shot, Monday started off similarly to some of the other games he’s had recently. He missed two open threes and a driving layup to start the game 0 of 3.
“The first couple games after the all-star break, I couldn’t buy a shot,” Bogdanovic said. “I got in (Monday's) game the same way, missed a couple easy ones. I said to myself before the game, ‘I have to stay aggressive no matter what.’”
Good thing he was. Bogdanovic was 10 of 16 after the slow start and hit five of his next eight from deep. His 19 shot attempts were the most since before the All-Star break.
“That’s how it is,” he said. “They put me today on Kevin Love. I needed to be concentrated on the defensive end so I was already into the game. He (Snyder) was right. … When I guard some guys from the other team, I kind of feel that I am more involved and I play better.”
Last week, Bogdanovic openly shouldered the blame for Utah’s four-game losing streak. He’s never been one to truly care about his stat lines, but when he’s putting up nights like the 1-for-8 game against Boston or the 3-of-13 performance against San Antonio and the Jazz are losing, it wasn’t hard for him to point the finger directly at himself.
Bogdanovic was far from the only culprit to Utah’s disappointing stretch. But his shot wasn’t falling and he wasn’t providing much beyond that. His defense, like everybody’s was lacking, and he only registered four assists total in the entire four-game losing streak.
“Sometimes you just cycle through things, whether the All-Star break impacts guys, whether it's your opponent, whether you are a little bit fatigued... all of those things come into it,” Snyder said. “That's why it's a team game and the one thing I think for our guys that we have really tried to reinforce is that you can always play defense.
"I think that's the primary thing for me, is that if you aren't playing well offensively or if you don't have your timing and you're not shooting well, you can't get caught in that rabbit hole.”
Bogdanovic didn’t get caught. And he showed why Snyder had no reason to worry.
“It’s just great to see the ball going through the net,” Bogdanovic said.
