The Triple Team: Jazz blow out Pistons early with terrific ball movement


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SALT LAKE CITY — Three thoughts on the Utah Jazz's 110-79 win over the Detroit Pistons from KSL.com's Jazz beat writer, Andy Larsen.

1. The passing to find and exploit the open man

This game was over almost before it started. The Jazz never trailed, had a 21-point lead after the first quarter, won every quarter after that, and just kept turning over the Pistons in the easiest win of the season.

For some reason, the Pistons kept sending help to the Jazz's ball-handlers. We've seen this backfire for teams playing the Jazz before, in games like the ones they've played against Milwaukee. The Jazz are just too good of passers, players one through five, for teams to temporarily defend one player with two guys.

This is just too easy. The trap sets Derrick Favors up with a 4-on-3 opportunity the defense collapses so he doesn't get a dunk, and he kicks it out to Jae Crowder for a three.

The Pistons just collapsed on Jazz ballhandlers without making any impact on the ball, and the Jazz are just too good of passers to not deal with that with ease. Here's Mitchell to Favors to Crowder: pic.twitter.com/QsUMzkTQDf — Andy Larsen (@andyblarsen) March 14, 2018

Even when the Pistons tried not to help too much, they still did. It seems like the Pistons want to drop off of Ricky Rubio here, forcing him to make the jumper. But Rubio has enough of a lead on Andre Drummond's movement (and on Ish Smith following him) that he has to follow him around the basket. He gets the temporary 2-on-1, and finds Rudy Gobert for the easy dunk.

Here's the Pistons leaving Gobert to focus on Rubio below the baseline: pic.twitter.com/szTv1wLMX2 — Andy Larsen (@andyblarsen) March 14, 2018

Joe Ingles is a good 3-point shooter, so I get why Blake Griffin tries to close out on him so hard. But there's no need for Drummond to step so far out to Ingles here, rather than keeping him in between. Instead, Drummond comes out too far and leaves Gobert wide open for an easy dunk.

And here Drummond just steps way too far out to deal with the Joe Ingles pullup midrange jumper threat: pic.twitter.com/RfRPo2XjqD — Andy Larsen (@andyblarsen) March 14, 2018

These are only three plays from the first quarter alone, and there are more. Time and time again, the Jazz just presented the Pistons with a mildly uncomfortable defensive task, the Pistons overreacted by helping too much, and then the Jazz got the easy dunk or the easy 3-point shot by making one more pass.

The teams that we've seen have success against the Jazz don't do this. They make the Jazz make individual plays, something they're not super equipped to do beyond Donovan Mitchell. But on a night like tonight, the Jazz's lead scoring efforts came from their least talented one-on-one players: Ingles, Gobert, and Jonas Jerebko.

"They move the basketball really well," said Detroit starting point guard Ish Smith. "They play with a flow. They move the ball; there is no second guessing on taking the shot. They do a good job of keeping you on the run. They force your man on the weak side to be there and then they either swing it or drive it. They are well coached."

2. Jae Crowder's basketball IQ

Since Jae Crowder has joined the Jazz, they have a 91.8 defensive rating when he's on the floor. That's silly: the best defensive rating by any team this year is 101.4 by the Boston Celtics.

But when he's on the floor with Rudy Gobert, the effect multiplies: the Jazz have an 84.2 defensive rating when both of them share the floor. Wow! Basically, if you play 84.2 defense for a game or even a majority of a game, you're probably going to win that game.

For a player new to the Jazz, Crowder has done an excellent job staying within Jazz head coach Quin Snyder's system, while still finding success in making plays on the defensive end. Plays like this steal are smart gambles: Crowder knew Smith would have to deal with Rubio defending him and Gobert down low, and knows that Smith isn't usually an in-control player. So why not take one step in and try to steal the ball?

Jae Crowder's basketball IQ has helped the Jazz since joining. This is a good gamble, digging on the wild Ish Smith to get a steal: pic.twitter.com/WwzV2npwJD — Andy Larsen (@andyblarsen) March 14, 2018

On the offensive end, you can see that too. On this play, the Jazz get the rebound, and push it up the floor to Ingles, but he ends up with the ball trapped on the baseline. Ingles knows that the opportunity isn't done, though, and runs a handoff play that gets Gobert a layup.

And this is super simple, but I liked that Crowder made space here for an improvised Ingles/Gobert handoff play early in the shot clock pic.twitter.com/N1Imi3SBVJ — Andy Larsen (@andyblarsen) March 14, 2018

Here's the thing: Crowder is just coming down the court and his man, Blake Griffin, is likely to interfere with the give and go as is. So Crowder rotates out of the way, making space for the Jazz to play the two-man game. Griffin follows, as desired, and the Jazz get the very easy two.

We actually haven't seen the best of Crowder yet: he's only shooting 38 percent from the field and is turning the ball over more than he ever has in his career. The Jazz are asking him to do more than he's ever done in his career. But while his individual numbers aren't good, his team numbers are fantastic. And really, that matters most.

3. Donovan Mitchell's motivation

Rudy Gobert famously wears No. 27 on his jersey. Why? Well, that's the draft slot that the Jazz selected him at, and he likes reminding himself and others that nearly the whole league passed on him before he found a home with the Jazz.

Donovan Mitchell, on the other hand, wears No. 45, Michael Jordan's baseball number. He liked the tribute to one of the most iconic athletes of all time, but wanted to be different than anybody else. Besides, Mitchell was a baseball player too.

On draft day, Mitchell thought he was going No. 12 to the Pistons. Why?

"I didn't miss much in that workout," Mitchell said. "I had it in my head and it didn't happen. Fortunately, I ended up here (in Salt Lake City). I did really well in the film session. I thought I aced the test. I thought, this was it."

But Mitchell doesn't feel any extra motivation against the Pistons, like Gobert might in a similar circumstance. Instead, Mitchell is motivated by his desire to improve himself, to explore where his limits are and achieve them, he explained. It's not about showing where everyone else was wrong, he clicks when he grows.

Mitchell said that his favorite on-court moments come when he corrects a mistake he's seen himself make in film study. To have a player who thinks like that must be exciting for a coach (like Snyder) that ticks on seeing people meet their potential.

So tonight's result, when No. 12 selection Luke Kennard scored 18 to lead the Pistons, while Mitchell only had 13, means nothing to him. Mitchell can't stop talking about the ball movement the Jazz had, and he's pretty proud of his own rebounding game, picking up nine.

Meanwhile, the Jazz picked up another win, with rookie Mitchell as their leader.

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