Game Coverage

By the Stats: Utah’s bounce-back win in Dallas

Thursday’s stats were far better than Tuesday’s

By Jason S. Walker@jwalker_sports Mar 23, 2018, 12:45pm MDT

Thursday night’s win in Dallas over the Mavericks helped get the Utah Jazz back on track and now I can relax knowing that the Jazz. The offense was smooth and the defense was passable even though it wasn’t up to Utah’s recent standard.

Here’s a link to the box score in case you need a reference.

Team

After the Jazz had their 11-game winning streak broken by Portland, they beat the Dallas Mavericks by seven points (97-90) in the very next game. And after the nine-game winning streak was broken by Atlanta, the Jazz beat the Mavericks by seven points 119-112.
Utah had a nine-game streak of holding opponents under 100 points snapped by the Mavericks. It was the tied for the longest such streak since the 2015-16 season.
After going 12-58 (20.7 percent) in their previous two games, the Jazz shot a solid 12-29 (41.4 percent) from deep with five players shooting 50 percent or better on 3-pointers (Derrick Favors, Joe Ingles, Ricky Rubio, Jonas Jerebko, Royce O’Neale)
The Jazz are 7-4 in games when Derrick Favors shoots at least two 3-point shots.
Thursday was the ninth time this season the Jazz have missed no more than one free throw. It was the fifth-best free throw percentage for a game this season where the Jazz shot at least 10 free throws.
J.J. Barea had a good game on offense, putting in a season-high 23 points to go with eight assists.
Barea has averaged 19.0 points per game this year against the Jazz, which is tied with Toronto for his highest average against a team this year (two games against the Raptors and three against the Jazz)
The Mavericks had three players with 20-plus points; Barea, Harrison Barnes, and Yogi Ferrell.
The Jazz had four players with at least 18 points (Derrick Favors, Joe Ingles, Ricky Rubio, Donovan Mitchell).
Those four players shot 56.7 percent from the field and 42.9 percent from three.
Utah had 32 assists, second-most this season and the sixth time the team has reached the 30 assist mark this season.
All five starters recorded at least five rebounds.

Donovan Mitchell

With his three steals, Mitchell became the sixth Jazz rookie to record 100 steals as a rookie (he has 101). He is 15 steals behind the Jazz rookie record of 116 set by Andrei Kirilenko (10 games remaining).
With 26 points Thursday, Mitchell is now averaging 20 points per game without having to round up (was at 19.95 after Atlanta game, is now at 20.04)
The rookie has been showing off his all-around game in March. He is averaging 4.8 rebounds and 4.1 assists, both are the highest averages he has had in a month this season.
In his last four games, he has made just 5-31 threes (16.1 percent).

Rudy Gobert

Gobert recorded his fifth game with at least five blocks this season and his second of the 2018 calendar year.
His 10-game streak of grabbing at least 10 rebounds was snapped, as he only reeled in seven in 36 minutes.
He was the only starter with a negative plus/minus, his -2 was tied for second-worst on the team. It was just the seventh time since returning from injury Gobert has not had a positive plus/minus (Utah is 2-5 in those games).
Gobert now has two or more blocks in seven straight games, his longest streak of the season and five games short of his longest streak, set in 2015.

Ricky Rubio

Rubio has made at least three 3-pointers in consecutive games for just the second time in his seven-year career. The last time was earlier this season as part of a three-game streak of at least three made 3-pointers from Oct. 28 to Nov. 1.
He is shooting 43.5 percent from deep in his last four games, which leads the Jazz.
His five steals were a season-high. Rubio now has 31 career games of 5 steals or more — third-most among active players behind Chris Paul (78) and LeBron James (35).

Derrick Favors

Favors tied a season high in assists with five. He had more assists than Ricky Rubio (3) and Donovan Mitchell (4).
He is shooting 40 percent (4-10) on 3-pointers in his last eight games — second on the Jazz in that span.
His +12 was second on the team and the third time in four games he has been +10 or better.
Derrick Favors has shot 37.5 percent from deep in games where he takes attempts two or more 3-pointers.
Favors was the only player other than Rudy Gobert to record a block against Dallas.

Joe Ingles

Ingles had 10 assists for the second time this year, which is also the second time in his career.
He is the first player since Deron Williams in 2011 to have at least 18 points, 10 assists and six rebounds in one game.
His +20 was the third time in four games he has been +20 or more and the fourth time in March.

Quick Hits

Jae Crowder is fourth among Utah’s bench players in games with 10-plus points with 14 despite having played only 17 games in a Jazz uniform.
The bench had an assist/turnover ratio of 8-2 (4-1 if you want to condense it). Crowder was the only reserve player with a turnover.
Dante Exum was the only player that did not record a rebound.

Random Stat

The Jazz had more assists (32) than defensive rebounds (31). It was the first time since 2010 the team had more assists than defensive rebounds in a game where the Jazz had at least 31 DREBs.

Complex Stat of the Day

On Thursday Ricky Rubio became the third Jazz player since 2010 to score 20 points, record five assists, five turnovers, and shoot 50 percent or better from the field.