The Utah Jazz played the last three games of their five game road trip last week, and finished strong. They beat the Houston Rockets 89-87 in a very close, very must-win game and tied up the season series 2-2. It was a tough game but the Jazz got big performances from Hayward, Favors, Mack, and Booker off the bench. After strategically dropping their game the next night to the Oklahoma City Thunder 113-91, they regrouped and took care of business against the Minnesota Timberwolves winning 93-84. Hayward was huge in that fourth quarter while Lyles was an off-the-bench catalyst. It was a solid week, but as you can tell from the Jazz scores -- 89, 91, 93 -- there wasn't a lot of scoring. A huge factor in these defensive wins has been shot making. The Jazz just didn't make a lot this past week.
See for yourself!
Point Guards:
- Dante Exum: Continues to rehab . . . though playing in the playoffs would be good experience for him.
- Shelvin Mack: Mack started all three games this week and his shot making was huuu-uuuge in the Houston win. Sadly, in the next two games he would go 0/7 from deep. And for the week his 21.43 3PT% doesn't look so good. For him he was good when he needed to be. He also completes the week with 9.33 ppg, 4.33 apg, 2.00 rpg, and 2.33 spg. Not bad at all.
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Raul Neto: Neto was the starter for most of this season, but is slowly adapting to the bench role. He had more turn overs than assists last week (not a good sign) but found his shots and went 7/14 from the field, and 5/7 from deep. His 6.33 ppg off of 4.67 shots a game looks good and efficient.
- Trey Burke: Trey got into one game, and in that game only the fourth quarter. It was garbage time but he dropped 17 on the OKC Thunder, he shot 5/9, 1/3, and 6/7 across the board. I find it hard to believe that he's less valuable than Christapher . . . but I'm not head coach.
Wing men:
- Gordon Hayward: G-Time had a regressive week where he would *only* average 15.3 ppg, 5.0 apg, 4.3 rpg, 1.3 spg, and 1.0 bpg. He didn't shoot well from the field (43.8%) but did everything else.
- Rodney Hood: Hood continues to shoot poorly, only 41.9% from the field and 26.7% from three. He did some work on the glass (3.7 rpg), and dished it out (3.0 apg) this week, but he's been in a downswing with his scoring for a while. I guess that means he'll turn it up tonight against Kobe Bryant.
- Alec Burks: Will return after the All-Star break. The Jazz just didn't point out which season.
- Joe Ingles: Ingles got in for 16.5 mpg, and was making shots this week, 50 fg% and 44 3pt%. His 4.7 ppg, 4.3 rpg, 1.0 apg, 0.7 spg while dropping 1.3 threes a game provide valuable bench capability when most of the time the bench looks less than capable.
- Chris Johnson: Johnson didn't make a lot of mistakes this week, but somehow still found himself -14 in +/-. I will have to re-watch the games to see how this was possible with how little he played.
Big men:
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Derrick Favors: Favors didn't score as much as he can this week, but still managed 14.3 ppg to go along with 7.3 rpg, 2.0 apg, 1.7 bpg, and 0.7 spg. His all-around game continues to impress, even if one of the games is a blowout and he sits.
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Rudy Gobert: Somehow this guy is seeing the ball less often than Lord Varys in The Game of Thrones (on HBO). (Varys is a eunuch) Rudy had a down week, but was playing, on average, LESS THAN HALF THE GAME THIS WEEK. His numbers are down as a result, but 3.67 ppg is just too low for this monster. He did wake up a little bit against the Wolves, getting 11 rebounds and 4 blocks. I hope it continues. For his time out there this week he did somehow rack up a -31 in +/-, by a large margin the worst on the team.
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Trey Lyles: Lyles is blossoming right now this spring. He came off the bench in all three games and put up averages of 9.7 ppg, 3.3 rpg, 1.0 apg, and made 1.0 threes a game. He also had some blocks and steals to boot. Things are looking good, even if he's not rebounding as well as I think he can.
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Trevor Booker: Booker is now getting fewer mpg than Lyles, but this could just be this week. He was good, though. He averaged 6.3 ppg, 3.7 rpg, 2.7 apg, and made 60% of his shots. He was all over the court in the Houston game as well.
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Jeff Withey: Jeff, like Trey, played in just one game this week. Like Trey he was also pretty good in his one appearance -- going for 8 points and 5 rebounds with a steal and a block in 17.4 minutes. He shot 66.7 fg% and really crashed the glass.
- Tibor Pleiss: Dude better at least be averaging a double-double in the NBA D-League
The top six players on the team in total minutes shot .438 .419 .474 .343 .333 .462 this week. That's how you get such low offensive scores. Or, you know, just play Trey Burke more . . . I know. I'm biased.
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