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Utah Jazz dominate Trae Young and the Atlanta Hawks

Some interesting scheme experiments paid off nicely for the Jazz

Atlanta Hawks v Utah Jazz Photo by Melissa Majchrzak/NBAE via Getty Images

The Utah Jazz dominated the Atlanta Hawks 116 - 92 and extended their win streak to 4 games with an impressive night from Donovan Mitchell and Mike Conley.

Utah held Trae Young to 1/11 shooting from the field. It was a tough night for Young whose numbers have dipped this season. Utah threw multiple defenders at Young and would press and double team him to get the ball out of his hands and it threw him off his rythm. If Utah wants success against other elite scoring guards in the future, they should try this strategy again because it worked.

Mitchell and Conley have quietly become one of the best, if not the best, backcourt in the league putting up monster night after monster night.

It’s become really fun to watch as they’re synergy has improved every game. Conley’s playmaking with Gobert has gotten exponentially better since last season. He has found a chemistry where he knows when to either rise up from three behind the screen or roll to the rim for his patented right-handed floater or a lob to Gobert.

For Mitchell his shot selection and playmaking have gotten worlds better than the first few games of the season. What used to be lob after lob have now become more kickouts to open shooters. Multiple times tonight Mitchell set up Bojan Bogdanovic for open corner threes that consistently kept the Jazz the Jazz lead around 10 or more.

It was actually a very impressive game for Conley and Mitchell because of the early struggles of Bojan Bogdanovic and Jordan Clarkson. Clarkson had some tough fouls and turnovers early in the game that gave some momentum to the Hawks and Bojan Bogdanovic’s struggles in isolation continued. Despite those issues Mitchell, who shot 6/10 from three, and Conley carried the Jazz to a pretty easy victory.

Atlanta Hawks v Utah Jazz Photo by Melissa Majchrzak/NBAE via Getty Images

Another nice site for the Utah Jazz was the bounceback performance of Rudy Gobert. Gobert has had a few off nights recently on offense with things like putbacks and dunks not going in. His shooting in recent games has been around 40%. Now, Gobert doesn’t need to have much of an offensive showing to help the Jazz, but they do need him to be efficient in the possesions he gets. Tonight? 6/7 from the field which is a perfect Rudy Gobert night for the Jazz. That’s all they need.

Gobert shot 50% from the free throw line tonight, an improvement as well from his recent tough stretch, but the Jazz will take that as well. Gobert, to be the efficiency monster that he is, will need to get that back to just under 70%. We’ve seen him do that before so there’s no reason not to expect it.

Game MVP

Donovan Mitchell

Mitchell was really good tonight in a myriad of ways. Obviously his fantastic shooting stands out but he also made great passes with 4 assists and was also a menace on defense with his 3 steals. This willingness to set up shooters unlocks Utah’s offense and makes them very potent. You can feel the improved synergy on the floor as the ball starts moving after a kickout. Also, any time you can turn a contested floater into a corner three from the best spot up shooter in the NBA, that’s a win

All in all it’s becoming a really dominant season for Mitchell who is absolutely living up to his contract and is getting better and better every season.