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The Utah Jazz fought hard and ended up with a 1-2 week, dropping games on the road to the Washington Wizards and Portland Trail Blazers, while beating the #3 team in the East at home, the Boston Celtics. The Portland game was important, and losing it bummed me out to the point that this post is a day late. That said, the Jazz don't usually win on the Blazer's homecourt anyway, so why was I so upset? Utah is approaching a critical stretch for the season and these games have meaning again. The players know this better than most, and guys are stepping up.
Gordon Hayward led the team in minutes, points, shots, and free throw attempts this week. It is crazy, but he's getting to the line nearly 10 times a game. That's Karl Malone -like. He's not shooting terribly well though, being under 80% from the line, and scraping by at a little above 40% from the field. It was a sloppy week for him (and the entire team), and there are more turn overs than we'd expect. But Gordon turned it around to steal 2.3 times a game in return. Over all, another great week for our star player.
Rudy Gobert played the second most minutes, and contributed with another double double average (though he missed one game by a little) 11.3 ppg, 11.7 rpg, and 3.3 bpg. This is what a center does. He takes good shots and usually makes them (54.6 FT%), and he got to the line 7.0 times a game. Sadly, he shot like a center does, and only made 47.6% of them. Even more insane, he was -23 in +/- this last week.
Rodney Hood is a do-it-all wingman who is shooting really well from three of late. We know that some weeks he shoots in the 20% range too, so it's okay to enjoy him while he's hot. He didn't average 20 ppg this week, but did so many good things out there on the court. His 16 / 3 / 3 / 1 line is really nice, it's amazing to me that he was -29, worst on the team, in +/- last week.
Derrick Favors occasionally remembers how talented he is. This past week was one of those situations. He averaged 18.7 ppg, 7.7 rpg, 2.7 apg, 2.0 bpg, and shot 56.4 FG% and 92.3 FT%. Yes, that's right, he went nearly perfect from the line, 12/13 for the week. He was the team leader in PRASB per game, and was above 1:1 in his per minute production. Amazing.
Shelvin Mack recently joined the team in a trade deadline deal, and played in one game. In that game he was without peer on the Jazz side, outplaying all of the other point guards on the roster. He finished with 16 points, 6 rebounds, 3 rebounds, and 1 block. I know, small sample size, but if he can keep it up he's going to make this team that much harder to deal with over the next few weeks.
Trevor Booker did his thing off the bench, and averaged 7.3 ppg, 7.0 rpg, 1.0 apg, 0.7 spg, and shot 56.3%. He's playing a lot better than he did before the trade deadline. There could be something there, if you dig in.
Raul Neto continues to shoot out of this world, going .615 / 1.000 / .750 this week on his way to 7.0 ppg. He also added 2.7 apg and 0.7 spg, but finished -11 in +/-.
Chris Johnson played nearly 20.0 mpg and had a good week. He averaged 5.3 ppg, pulled down 3.7 rpg, added 1.0 apg, 1.0 spg, and shot 40% from deep.
Trey Burke is now playing very little and just as luck would having, no longer shooting as well as he did before the trade deadline. There could be something there if you dig in a little, as well. He averaged 5.3 ppg and shot just 25.0 FG%. He did still shoot 36.4% from downtown, but he's going to need to do more to get on the floor more. One thing he did do well was average 3.3 apg, outside of that one Shelvin game, he was tops on the team.
Joe Ingles is not having a great year, but he is still shooting well from deep, 40%. Trey Lyles is seeing little of the court with more frontcourt health, that's the same for Jeff Withey as well. At least they both made all of their free throws. Dante Exum and Alec Burks are still out, and Tibor Pleiss continues to not be used by the Jazz.