Another rout: Jazz fry Nuggets to take 2-1 lead in series

SALT LAKE CITY — So where do we begin?

Maybe Rudy Gobert’s 20-point, 11-rebound first half? Or what about Mike Conley, who scored 27 points and hit his first six 3s in his Jazz playoff debut?

Or maybe Donovan Mitchell’s breakaway dunk at the end of the third quarter. Ah, yes, that’s it. That play highlighted exactly what happened on Friday.

Mitchell effortlessly stole a lazy pass at the top of the key and sprinted out ahead. He could have casually jogged and he would still have been all alone — not one Denver Nugget was giving chase. Mitchell slowed, geared up and exploded for a one-handed hammer. When he landed, the Utah star screamed and smiled as the Jazz bench erupted.

Utah broke Denver’s spirit on Friday — and then broke it again and again. The Jazz beat Denver 124-87 in Game 3 to take a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven series. It was the third-largest margin of victory in Jazz playoff history and the biggest since 1996.

Over the last two games, Utah has outscored Denver by 56 points and in both games have had leads of at least 31.

In the first two games of the series, it was Mitchell that has been leading the charge for the Jazz. Game 3, it was Gobert’s turn.

Gobert scored 20 points in the first half on what seemed like a never-ending supply of lobs. In an attempt to slow down Utah’s lethal attack, Denver tried to switch more on the pick-and-roll — but instead of limiting Utah's drives, it just opened up the lane for Gobert. The Jazz center rolled right by the switching defense, and that allowed Utah’s drivers to find him for dunk after dunk.

Joe Ingles had eight assists, Mike Conley had four assists, and even Jordan Clarkson finished with four assists. Many of those were to Gobert, who was 9 of 11 on the day.

“It’s complex in one sense and really simple in another — his commitment, his spacing, trusting his teammates,” Utah head coach Quin Snyder said of Gobert. “When they’re finding him, he’s doing a great job. He’s running, effective pick-and-roll, he’s rolling to the rim. He’s allowing our guards to drive the ball, and he’s on the other end of those drives. Those guys are unbelievably unselfish and his ability to trust them and their ability to trust him, that’s hard to guard. In that sense, when there’s space, Rudy is responsible for creating that many times.”

Gobert usually shies away from talking outright about individual matchups — he prefers to talk about the team as a whole. But Gobert is a proud man, and he cares about where he is perceived in the hierarchy of big men in the league. And in Game 3, he made a statement.

He had 24 points and 14 rebounds all while holding his counterpart, Nikola Jokic, to a trivial 15 points and six rebounds. Gobert also was a key reason the Nuggets finished Game 3 with just a 93.5 defensive rating.

Gobert’s dominant start helped the Jazz get out to an 11-point lead after the first quarter — a lead they built even though they were shooting 1-for-9 from 3-point range. When those started going down, it was game over. The Jazz hit 10 of their next 12 3-pointers and just like that, everyone was already thinking of Game 4. Utah shot 48.6% from 3 as a team.

“We lost this game at the end of the first quarter, start of the second quarter,” Denver head coach Michael Malone said. “They closed the first quarter on, I believe, a 12-4 run. They opened the second quarter on an 11-2 run. It was a wrap. Everything after that — the second half and the last 8 minutes for the second quarter — was just window dressing; we lost the game and that crucial stretch.”

The Jazz led by as many as 25 points in the second quarter before Denver made a run to cut it to 14. Conley hit a 3 — one of his seven on Friday — that ended the run and really any chance the Nuggets had. In the fourth quarter, Utah led by as many as 39 points.

Conley had a game-high 27 points in his first game of the series after missing Game 1 and 2 due to leaving the bubble to be with his family following the birth of his son Elijah.

And with Conley and Gobert handling much of the load, Mitchell, who finished with 20 points on 13 shots, didn’t need another signature performance in Game 3. He settled for a signature moment — a tomahawk dunk that summed up the game.

“The great thing about tonight is that we played a hard game. You know, there’s nothing that we did tonight that I haven’t seen this team doing before,” Gobert said. “You know, we were playing hard, communicating on defense, and offensively trying to get baskets and move the ball. I know that Mike (Conley) make those shots every night. I know that Georges (Niang), Donovan (Mitchell), Joe (Ingles) can all make those shots every night, you know? So, it’s all about keeping on … and reading and making the right play.”

Game 4 is on Sunday.

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