The Triple Team: 3 thoughts on Jazz vs. Warriors


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SALT LAKE CITY — Three thoughts on the Jazz's close 106-103 loss to the undefeated Golden State Warriors from Utah Jazz beat writer Andy Larsen.

1. Let's dissect the final minute or so

With one minute left, the game was tied at 101-101, Warriors' ball. In a previous timeout, the Jazz had decided to start switching Steph Curry pick and rolls, in order to confuse him a little bit with a different look. The Warriors had been taking advantage of Curry's playmaking on the perimeter, but now the Jazz were going to put Derrick Favors on him, and hope that Curry would be baited into taking a bad shot with the long arms and big body of Favors guarding him.

It worked. Last season's MVP took this shot, so coldly described as a "Curry 3 PT 26' Step Back Jump Shot" in the box score. The result was even colder.

Steph's ridiculous 26-footer to get 3 point lead with under a minute to go. pic.twitter.com/xJDJLV5KBM — Andy Larsen (@andyblarsen) December 1, 2015

If that shot doesn't go in, the Warriors lose the game.

The Jazz call a timeout after the three, which turns out to be critical. Hood ends up with the ball in the corner, but Andre Iguodala overplays the drive up top, which Hood reads and drives baseline to the basket. Despite the fair challenge from Festus Ezeli, the difficult layup goes in. Jazz down 1.

Rodney Hood's baseline drive and finish over Ezeli. pic.twitter.com/WjLTQA8I6a — Andy Larsen (@andyblarsen) December 1, 2015

Next possession: Once again, the Warriors run a Steph Curry and Draymond Green pick-and-roll, their go-to play. The Jazz switch. Curry isolates on Favors, but this time misses the tough three with 16 seconds left. Where Curry hit the tough shot last possession, this one goes awry, out of bounds. Jazz ball. Snyder calls his final timeout, down one.

The Jazz draw up a double-screen play for Gordon Hayward, who the Jazz usually entrust the ball to in these situations. But as Rodney Hood described later, the play's timing was off, so Hood was forced to make a play.

Hood's final shot + Green rebound pic.twitter.com/iLcTZxazzD — Andy Larsen (@andyblarsen) December 1, 2015

Some will hate that the Jazz took a 3-point shot with the deficit at one, but I thought it was a relatively good look. Iguodala got screened, and it was only a fantastic late contest by Ezeli, who was jumping from pretty far away, that meant the shot was under any pressure. It's also worth noting that 3-point shots are about as likely to go in as 2-point shots:

The Triple Team: 3 thoughts on Jazz vs. Warriors

The Warriors got the contested rebound, as Gobert got a hand on it, and wasn't able to track it down. Green was, though, and made a really risky pass to Curry, who salted away the game at the free throw line. Without timeouts, the Jazz couldn't do anything with 2.5 seconds left.

In the end, I felt the Jazz played the last minute about as well as they could have. They made good defensive plays, then got relatively good looks on the offensive end against the Warriors' defense, which led the league last year. The difference was Curry's superhuman make from deep, plus Green coming up with a loose ball rebound.

It was that margin that kept the Jazz from ending the Warriors' win streak.

2. Where the Jazz are right now

A three-point win is Golden State's closest victory of the season, although the team did win an overtime game this year. But given that the Warriors have beaten all of their opponents by an average of 16 points per game this year, a three-point deficit feels pretty good.

I also felt that, in order for the Jazz to have a chance, the Warriors would have to have a poor shooting night. In fact, the opposite happened: Golden State made 48 percent of its 29 3-point attempts and still nearly lost the game. It was a gritty, veteran performance against perhaps the best team this decade, and it nearly panned out.

So it makes sense that despite the loss, the team was relatively upbeat after the game about what this meant for their team.

Rudy Gobert summed it up. When asked what this game said about the team, he responded, "That we can be great. Not good, but great. It was the best team in the league, and we were right there."

Snyder agreed, saying, "To do things with discipline and execution against a team in a close game, they should feel good about how they played."

Yes, the Jazz are just .500, 8-8 on the season. But they've played the league's sixth hardest schedule, and clearly have huge holes to fill in the roster, with the league's third-least experienced team. And that record, in this year's tight Western Conference, is good enough for the seventh seed.

The Jazz should feel good about how they played tonight, especially with their tough interior defense. "Jazz" trended nationally on Twitter after the game, and I think a lot of observers were impressed with the team's performance tonight. They were just one shot away.

3. The arena's atmosphere was fantastic

Tonight was a sellout crowd at Vivint Arena, and it felt like one, with fans of both teams loud and boisterous all night long. I would estimate the crowd was about 80 percent Jazz fans and 20 percent Warriors fans, but to their credit, the Warriors fans did a tremendous job of staying loud throughout the game as they hit big shots.

One thing that the Jazz's crowd does incredibly well is sense the big possessions in a game. Tonight, the crowd got loud at important points in the second, third and fourth quarters, as the team went on small runs that pushed the best out of the Warriors. In many ways, with a small deficit all night long, it really felt like a playoff game in terms of atmosphere.

Former NBA Commissioner David Stern came on 1280 AM today to talk about Larry Miller's legacy, but had some nice things to say about the crowd in Utah:

"The fans in Utah believe the Jazz have NEVER committed a foul. It's libel & slander if a ref calls a foul on one of their guys" David Stern — Austin Horton (@austinhorton) November 30, 2015

> "I think it's the most intense fan base in all of the league. I really, really do." David Stern on Utah Jazz fans > > — Austin Horton (@austinhorton) [November 30, 2015](https://twitter.com/austinhorton/status/671460770421567488)

It's been a little bit strange for the last two years, as the Jazz's once-great home court advantage has shriveled somewhat. That might be an important next step: recreating the home court magic that the Jazz teams of the '90s and early 2000s rode to great records and playoff seeds. ![](http://beacon.deseretconnect.com/beacon.gif?cid=344083&pid=4)

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