It’s been Donovan Mitchell’s world in the playoffs as he’s completely dismantled the Nuggets game after game.

Although last game he had a quieter performance with “only” 20 points. It didn’t matter though because Mike Conley came back with some dad strength shooting 7/8 from three and helped the Jazz blow out the Nuggets a second time.

The Denver Nuggets have not had an answer for the Jazz on defense. If the Nuggets don’t come with any type of change in scheme or effort, this one could get ugly quick again.

Game Info

When: Sunday, August 23, 2020 • 7:00 PM MT

Where: The NBA Bubble, Disney World

TV: TNT, AT&T SportsNet

Radio: 97.5 FM | 1280 AM The Zone

What to watch for

Can the Jazz keep up their offensive onslaught?

In Game 1 Utah shot 34% from three and the game went to overtime. In Game 2 they were 45% from three and in Game 3 48%. And considering the Jazz are taking a huge amount of them, that’s a problem for Denver.

How much of that is hot shooting and how much of it is schemes from Quin Snyder setting up nice shots? Likely, it’s a little of both.

Utah is shooting as many threes as anyone in the league and Denver gives up a lot of them. That implies that Utah will likely get a lot of threes again, the question is will they make them? They probably don’t shoot close to 50% from three again, but if they can shoot a respectable percentage they should have another big offensive night.

Utah is also decimating Michael Porter Jr. in the series. Porter has shown an inability to stay in front of anyone and when you combine that with Nikola Jokic’s invisible rim defense it makes for a really bad defensive formula.

The other Jazz player going nuts against the Nuggets is Rudy Gobert. Gobert is averaging 20 points and 9.3 rebounds per game going 72% from the field. He’s destroying Jokic on his rolls. But what is more exciting is that Gobert is passing out of the roll to shooters when the shot isn’t there. Utah has found a way to get even better with Gobert on the roll because they’re getting even more efficiency out of every possession.

Gobert also deserves credit for his defense. Jokic is shooting 49% from the field with 5 assists per game. Gobert hasn’t completely shut him down, but he’s found a way to neutralize him enough that it has held the Nuggets’ offense in check. Gobert consistently gets underrated for his performances but maybe he’ll start to get the respect he deserves if the Jazz pull off a big win in the game today.

Mandatory Highlight