Utah Jazz sharpshooter Rodney Hood had quite a night against the Detroit Pistons

Last night the Utah Jazz (25-16) defeated the Detroit Pistons (18-24) by the mighty margin of 110-77. It was a pretty close game in the first quarter, but the home team was down by five after one. The offense was lethargic, missing easy shots, and not at all looking like a top ten offense. And yes, even with the Jazz managing a 120.1 ORTG for this game the team has now dropped to 12th best in the NBA. Utah’s offense has had some issues of late. But thankfully starting shooting guard Rodney Hood erupted in the second quarter -- and stayed hot the rest of the way.

We’ve mentioned just a few days ago about just how streaky Hood is. If you look at his game-by-game performance you see that his offense really helped to keep the Jazz’ head above water during the injury plagued beginning of the season. But as the team got healthier he has not been as effective. That trend ended last night when he dropped 27 points off of just 14 shots. Hood’s 7 for 8 from three was one of the best nights in franchise history. And it just underscores how streaky he has been.

Here’s how Hood has shot from deep over his last 25 games:

Basketball-Reference.com, AllThatAmar

It’s up and down, and man, going 0 for 17 over those four games (@ Memphis Grizzlies, @ Golden State Warriors, vs. Toronto Raptors, @ Los Angeles Lakers) was hopefully his lowest point of the season. For this data set (his last 25 games) we’re seeing Hood shoot 33.80% from deep. It’s lower than his season average, so there’s room to improve of course. But, c’mon, last night was amazing.

Over the available data for New Orleans / Utah Jazz franchise history (via Basketball-Reference.com - 1983-84 till today), only 50 times has a Jazzman shot 8 or more three pointers in a game, and made 5 or more of his attempts. (There were over 180 games where someone shot 8 or more, but man, lots of bad shooting nights.) When you sort the group of players who have made 5 of 8 (or better) by frequency you get an interesting list.

But one of the names at the top of this list is . . . none other than the Prince of Threes:

• Nine times - Deron Williams and Rodney Hood
• Four times - Devin Harris, Randy Foye, and Trey Burke
• Three times - Gordon Hayward
• Two times - Andrei Kirilenko, Bryon Russell, Darrell Russell, Kyle Korver, and Marvin Williams
• One time - Bob Hansen, C.J. Miles, Dante Exum, George Hill, Jeff Hornecek, Joe Ingles, and Richard Jefferson

When you put their games in table form you see that while Hood is on this list a lot . . . everyone is still looking up to Jeff Hornacek.

Basketball-Reference.com, AllThatAmar

Horny dropped 40, after going 8/8 from deep and shooting 14 for 18 overall. Ridiculous. Hood’s night against the Pistons was hot, but not even his career best, which happened against the Lakers last season. Imagine how many times Hornacek would be on this list if he had the green light? He was phenomenal.

Basketball-Reference.com, AllThatAmar

Man, who else remembers that 53 minute game for Devin Harris? (Full list from BBALL REF over here.) But the biggest surprise of all? Mehmet Okur has never taken 8 threes in a game for the Jazz? Ever? That’s just mismanagement.

So while we have seen some bad Hood shooting nights, clearly he was the catalyst that turned a close game against Detroit into a blowout win at home. And his ability to get hot isn’t something you can bank on but clearly Hood can make a good Utah Jazz team into a great one. And we saw it last night.

Bravo! And keep shooting!