The Triple Team: 3 thoughts on Jazz vs. Nuggets


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SALT LAKE CITY — Three thoughts on the Jazz's 85-81 win against the Denver Nuggets from KSL.com's Utah Jazz beat writer, Andy Larsen.

1. Jazz turn on the defense in sloppy, physical, slow game

Before the game tonight, the Jazz talked about the importance of getting out to a fast start against the Denver Nuggets. Instead, though, it was a sloppy start: not tight enough defense on one end, and not good enough shotmaking on the other end to get an advantage.

It got to the point where Snyder called two early timeouts in the first quarter in order to get into his team a little bit, angrily pointing out where they had to improve.

"I thought they were the more aggressive team. We've talked a lot about continuing to carve out that identity defensively," Snyder said. "I really wanted to shake us up and see if we could respond."

This wasn't a "WAKE UP" situation, where Snyder's actions caused the Jazz's immediate turnaround. Instead, the Jazz continued to play pretty sloppily through the first half, and went into halftime with a six-point deficit.

But after that halftime, the Jazz really turned up the defensive pressure. The Nuggets only shot 6-18 in the third quarter and 4-17 in the fourth quarter, numbers that will make it very easy for the Jazz to win games.

In fact, that second half defense has been the key for the Jazz over this four-game winning streak. Over all four games, the Jazz are allowing an average of 38.5 points and an 84.8 defensive rating in second half action. Tonight, it was 35 points and a 77 defensive rating. That's enough to cover up a lot of offensive problems.

2. Speaking of which, the offense wasn't rolling tonight

The Jazz struggled for much of the game on the offensive end. Part of that was the start-and-stop nature of the game: the non-overtime, low scoring contest took 2 hours and 24 minutes to play, much longer than the average.

That included a seemingly interminable 46 minute fourth quarter, 30 minutes of which happened over the last four minutes. That was mostly the result of 15 fouls called in the fourth quarter.

Refereeing was questionable for both sides. While the Nuggets ended up with 14 more free throws attempted, they were pretty rightly aggrieved on more than a few calls, including a phantom goaltending and some interesting bailout calls given to the Jazz. On the other end, Danilo Gallinari's 14 trips to the line seemed to include a couple where the Jazz didn't actually deserve to be called for the foul.

This might have hurt the Jazz's offense a little bit. The Jazz's offense is at its best in a fluid game: the team is 22nd in the league in offensive rating after a made shot, but 13th after a defensive rebound and 6th after forcing a turnover.

But even beyond that, there just weren't any standouts for the Jazz offensively. Even Derrick Favors, who co-led the Jazz with 16 points, was struggling in a big way with his jump shot.

"Everybody just had an off night. That happens sometimes in the NBA, you play so many games, you have good nights and bad nights," Favors explained. "Tonight, everyone had a bad night offensively."

That's why it was so important that the Jazz be able to figure it out on the defensive end against the Nuggets. The Nuggets had been playing well recently, winning some games they probably shouldn't against Toronto and in Washington. Tonight, the Jazz did just enough to get the important home win.

3. Some interesting substitutions in tonight's game

There were some interesting substitutions from Jazz coach Quin Snyder. I don't "interesting" pejoratively here at all; I think they possibly reflected how Snyder views his players at this juncture in the season.

For one, Erick Green got some minutes at the point guard spot in the second quarter, for the first time in non-garbage time as a Jazzman. This was after just four minutes of Trey Burke action, though Green probably got the call instead of Neto due to the latter's foul trouble. Green also probably had some familiarity against Denver, as he played there earlier this season, and the Jazz were definitely looking for a new spark.

For what it's worth, Green wasn't wildly impressive in his 150 second look, taking one shot and missing it. At that point, Chris Johnson came in for Green, and the Jazz played without a PG briefly.

Then, in the fourth quarter, the Jazz used a little bit of offense-defense substitution as the game wound down. Trevor Booker came in on the offensive end, spacing the floor, and Gobert came in for the defensive possessions. That's probably a little bit matchup specific, but it allowed the Jazz much more space for the Hayward, Rodney Hood, and Favors trifecta to operate and score.

In the game's most critical offensive possession, with 34.6 seconds left and the Jazz up just two points, Snyder went with a lineup featuring Neto, Hayward, Hood, Joe Ingles, and Favors. That's interesting in it's own right, too: the Jazz trusted Neto and Ingles to make the right play at the end and be able to space the floor effectively, and Hayward, Hood, and Favors to create. The initial 9-footer by Hood was no good, but the Jazz ended up with the rebound afterwards thanks to some big hustle from Favors.

How Snyder and the coaching staff see their talent is a critical part of how the Jazz approach the trade deadline, now just two weeks away. They might prefer to have more trustworthy offensive threats than Neto, Ingles, and Booker, for example, come critical games down the stretch.

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