'That's how we want to play': Jazz give their biggest offensive tease of the season

SALT LAKE CITY — It seems to happen each game: a moment or a stretch of play where the Jazz provide a hint and offer a little tease of what they can look like when everything comes together.

On Tuesday, in their 109-102 win over the Orlando Magic, the Jazz may have given their fan base their biggest tease yet.

It started at the 7:12 mark in the third quarter. Joe Ingles ran his defender through a double screen from Bojan Bogdanovic and Rudy Gobert, and popped out at the short corner. Donovan Mitchell found him, and Ingles buried the wide-open 3-pointer.

Utah’s next possession may have just been the team’s best of the year. Mitchell drove into the paint, forcing three Magic players to collapse in on him. With the rim protected, Mitchell kicked the ball out to Bogdanovic in the corner. Bogdanovic swung it to Royce O’Neale, who swung it to Ingles, who swung it back to Mitchell, who was now standing in the opposite corner. Mitchell buried the shot.

On the next possession, Mitchell found a running Bogdanovic, who stepped into an open 3-pointer. Then Bogdanovic went around a Gobert screen for a short open push shot. Then Emmanuel Mudiay made a bounce pass to O’Neale for an open transition 3.

In a two-minute span, the Jazz had scored 14 points on five possessions. Five different players scored five buckets, and they came off four assists (and one screen assist).

There have been plenty of times this year when the Jazz's offense has been a muddled display of disconnected players and poor spacing. That wasn't the case for much of Tuesday's game; even during Orlando's big 32-8 run, the Jazz had some open shots.

“That’s how we want to play,” Utah head coach Quin Snyder said. “I have said before, sometimes it’s not easy, particularly if you get a little fatigued and you take some shortcuts. I thought we were committed. ... If the ball can stay moving like that, the way our team is constructed I think it gives a lot of guys the opportunity to attack.”

It was like a couple of days of practice did the team some good. It was a fluid unit that looked connected. Utah finished with 27 assists on the night.

“It's tough to guard when we move the ball that way,” Bogdanovic said. “When we play that way it's really really tough to beat us.”

But sometimes the Jazz are still beating themselves — even if it's with good intentions. Players like Bogdanovic and Mitchell (not to mention Mike Conley and Ingles) are naturally unselfish. Yes, Mitchell can take the ball and take over the game but, for the most part, he’s looking for the right play and the right read. And that can lead to some overpassing.

Even on Utah’s crowd-pleasing passing play that led to Mitchell's wide-open 3-pointer during the Jazz's special offensive stretch, both O’Neale and Ingles passed up open looks.

That specific instance didn’t hurt the Jazz — and ultimately led to a better shot — but other passed-up shots did.

“When we do have different guys that can make plays and get shots, it's incumbent upon them to be unselfish,” Snyder said. “And, you know, there are a few times Bojan moved the ball and you think, ‘Why don't you shoot that?’ And I think there are still times where we overpass. One time led to a three-second call; one time it led to a guy being out of bounds when we had a shot. So those aren't things necessarily want to quote-unquote, live with, but the mentality is the mentality we want.”

The Jazz already have the right mentality. Tuesday showed they are inching closer to getting the right execution, too.

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