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Sarah Todd
Guest
Utah Jazz guard Jordan Clarkson (00) goes for a dunk in the game against the Golden State Warriors at Vivint Smart Home Arena in Salt Lake City on Saturday, Jan. 23, 2021. | Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News
The Utah Jazz decimated the Golden State Warriors 127-108 on Saturday night at Vivint Arena. The Jazz built a 30-point lead by halftime and the starters were able to rest for the majority of the fourth quarter with the game completely out of reach for the Warriors.
High notes
- The Jazz opened the game on a 14-0 run by making three consecutive 3-pointers, a score by Rudy Gobert at the rim and then another 3. They were quick, spaced, calm and controlled. It was a beautiful way to start the game.
- The shooting cooled off a little bit as the game went on, but the Jazz’s defense remained locked in. They withstood anything the Warriors tried to throw at them, including increased pressure on the perimeter players, but Donovan Mitchell exploited that pretty easily with hard drives at the rim.
- One of the areas that Jazz head coach Quin Snyder has pointed to as an area that the team still needs to work on is transition defense. Against the Warriors, the Jazz really took things up a notch. This was never more apparent than when Joe Ingles stripped Kelly Oubre from behind on a fast break, which led to Warriors head coach receiving a technical foul for his reaction.
- I’d like to give a special shoutout to a Jazz fan who was sitting in the suite above press row tonight. It’s very possible that there has never been an adult who has been more amped up for literally every single play of a game the way that he was. The commentary and screaming, while often inaccurate and unnecessary, was entertaining. If you’re reading this, drink some hot tea with honey — your vocal cords will need some soothing.
- In his first eight-minute stint on the floor on Saturday night, Bojan Bogdanovic dished out four assists. I hadn’t even realized it had happened until I looked at the box score. For a guy who has regularly had games with zero assists, it was a pleasant surprise. By the time he subbed out for the night, he’d been on a legitimate triple-double watch, finishing with 14 points, a career-high eight assists and seven rebounds.
- With his fourth made 3-pointer of the game, Stephen Curry passed Reggie Miller on the all-time made 3s list and is now second only behind Ray Allen, who he trails by just 411 3-pointers, a number he has surpassed many times in a single season and nearly doubled in the 2018-19 season when he hit 810 3-pointers.
- Noted non-superstar Mitchell once again couldn’t impact the ga…. Oh wait, he had 23 points on 9-of-18 shooting to go with seven rebounds and six assists in three quarters. He was incredible and was able to relax on the bench in the fourth.
Low notes
- Bogdanovic has been more hesitant to shoot this season than we’ve seen from him before. He’s also been doing this thing recently that is a little strange. Rather than taking a wide open shot, he waits for a defender to get close, almost like he’s expecting a fly-by, before taking a dribble to the left and taking a semi-contested shot. Maybe he’s mistaking the defender and thinks a fly-by is coming, or maybe he’s just making things harder on himself.
- The Warriors had basically no offensive help from anyone outside of Curry, rookie James Wiseman and Andrew Wiggins, but even then it was kind of hard to watch Curry try to carry a team that really didn’t have anything to fight back with.
- Four of the Warriors starters shot 50% or worse from the free-throw line, and Draymond Green didn’t even get to the foul line a single time. Yeesh.
Flat notes
- While the Jazz’s first three possessions were beautiful examples of the space and pace style of play that were such a huge part of the dynasty Warriors, Golden State’s first three shots were an airball 3-pointer and two horrible midrange misses from Oubre and Wiseman. It was such a clear indicator of how far things have fallen for a team that won three championships in four years.
- Wiseman is a really talented rookie who has a ton of gifts and is very likely going to be good player for a long time. But he did not look great against Gobert. Part of that is a credit to Gobert, his experience and his prowess on both ends. The other part is that Wiseman is just underdeveloped at this point. It’s probably good that he’s on this Golden State team, which doesn’t have many expectations to meet this season considering their lack of depth and the season-ending injury that Klay Thompson suffered before the season even began. Wiseman will be able to get a ton of good experience, but there are just going to be nights when he doesn’t look good.
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