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Tim good morningESPN
When the Utah Jazz reunited for training camp in December, they had three months to think about how they had finished the previous season – with Mike Conley’s potential 3-point winning game somehow turning against the Denver Nuggets.
During those three months, the Jazz thought over and over again about that shot that was coming to an end, about the 3-1 advantage they had exploded in that series, at not being able to get out of the first round of the Conference playoffs. West. straight season. And they came back at the start of this campaign determined to make sure things were different this time.
“I really feel like we came back this year with a purpose,” said Utah center Rudy Gobert. “I really feel like we have a chip on our shoulder and we need it if we do what we want to do this year.”
After their last win Tuesday night, a 122-108 decision over the Boston Celtics visitors, the Jazz are now the top 20-5 in the NBA this season and have won 16 of their last 17 games.
And, unlike the other teams floating around him at the top of the NBA ecosystem (Los Angeles Lakers, LA Clippers, Milwaukee Bucks and Philadelphia 76ers), Utah doesn’t have a real superstar on their roster. Instead, what has brought Jazz to this point through a third of the season is a cast that works in perfect harmony.
The result is a team that is playing as well as anyone else in the league and that navigates through its opponents every night.
“Whenever you see a type of mold for players and coaches, it’s rewarding,” said Jazz coach Quin Snyder. “When you have a team that collectively tries to play a certain way and bet on it, I think that’s what we have.”
Part of Jazz’s commitment comes from the way it ended last season. Frankly, the entire 2019-20 campaign was a challenge for Utah. The team was hoping to make a push forward last year after being traded to Conley, only to struggle powerfully to adapt to playing on a team other than the Memphis Grizzlies for the first 12 years of his career. The Jazz then added Jordan Clarkson to increase his score on the bench during the season and only lost starting striker Bojan Bogdanovic for the time the team spent in the Florida bubble due to wrist surgery.
And all of this, of course, is evident compared to Utah being in the middle of the league at the close of last March for several months after Gobert and Donovan Mitchell, the two stars of the team, tested positive for COVID-19.
But instead of all that, as well as Utah’s heartbreaking loss to Denver, caused the Jazz to separate, instead sending them into the off-season determined to create something better.
“I think, you know, the most important thing that came into play was just our motivation during the offseason,” Mitchell said. “Guys coming in. I look at Royce [O’Neale]. People don’t watch Royce because we don’t play on TV, but you watch Royce and this year he had the best form of career. The determination in this regard. You see the product on the ground, but I think the most important thing is what you see on the ground.
“He and I went to Miami and worked three or four weeks in a row. The things I saw him do, I haven’t seen him do in his four years. Not to mention he doesn’t work hard, but he took it to a another level “.
“I think that’s where we saw the difference. We saw work ethic make another leap,” Mitchell explained.
What has helped Jazz the most has been that, in a season where there are so many things on the air for so many teams, Utah knows exactly what it is and what it wants to be.
After his first growth pains last season, Conley, who currently has a hamstring injury, played better in the bubble and has been excellent to start this season. Bogdanovic has returned from wrist surgery and is starting to get back in shape. Joe Ingles is shooting percentages throughout the race. And Clarkson is the runaway leader right now to win the league’s sixth man of the year award. Meanwhile, the only outstanding player Utah added during the offseason – big man Derrick Favors – had spent the vast majority of his first nine seasons in Utah before being drafted to the New Orleans Pelicans last season, which the it left me very familiar with what it was. Jazz would like you to do that.
And of course, the team has seen excellent play continued from its stars. Gobert remains the league’s first defensive player, anchoring a Jazz unit that, despite adding more offensive players in recent years, still ranks third in the NBA. Mitchell, meanwhile, came in Tuesday shooting a 41.6% better run from the 3-point range, and that was before he went 6 for 13 from line 3 as part of his 36-point high .
Despite Mitchell’s shootings, after the game it was said that what he, Snyder and Gobert talked about, instead, was Mitchell’s decision-making: to guard the injured Conley, he had nine assists and only two changes in 36 minutes.
“Decision making,” Gobert said, when asked what has been Mitchell’s best improvement this season. “He’s really able to understand the pace of the game and find his teammates.
“I think he’s improved every year, but this year is really the year he’s advanced, and when he does, the team just moves to another level.”
The Jazz know what level they want to reach this season. It’s been 13 years since Utah last reached the Western Conference Finals, when Deron Williams and Carlos Boozer led them there in 2008 and lost to the Lakers. It’s been 23 years since Utah last reached the NBA Finals, when John Stockton and Karl Malone lost to the Chicago Bulls for the second straight season.
Time will tell if Utah has the ability to get to that level, even though the numbers at least give them a chance to fight. Utah is the only team in the league in the top five in both offensive and defensive efficiency. The only ones in the top ten of the two categories? The Lakers and Bucks. And while there will still be questions about whether the Jazz will have a hard time holding back teams that can push Gobert away from the edge, Utah’s added fist offensively (the Jazz lead the NBA in 17 triples made per game) balance they didn’t have before.
And for those unsure of Utah’s ultimately high ceiling, Jazz will have plenty of opportunities over the next few weeks to defend their case. Since Tuesday’s win over Boston, the Jazz have a streak of eight nine games against some elite teams in the league: the Celtics, Bucks, Miami Heat (twice), Sixers, Lakers and Clippers (twice ).
But ultimately, the Jazz aren’t worried about what happens over the next two weeks. Instead, it’s about being ready for what’s left even later, and making sure they don’t have the same bitter taste in your mouth at the end of this season that they had when they left Orlando at September.
“I think the most important thing is to focus on what we do,” Mitchell said. “This is the first game of a big stretch that we have to play and we have to focus on the small details. We have teams [scheduled] they have high level players, a deep playoff experience, and we just have to go out and do what we do.
“It’s not like we’re saying this is a stretch for us. … We’re not playing to be ready for February … we’re playing to be ready [July]. That’s when we have to have our best product and these are good tests for us. “