Game Coverage

By the Stats: Jazz fall short in overtime to the Spurs

Allowing 40 points is a recipe for disaster for the Jazz

By Jason S. Walker@jwalker_sports Mar 24, 2018, 12:40pm MDT

Friday’s loss to the San Antonio Spurs has set the Utah Jazz back in the playoff race, but there are still a lot of great things going on with the Jazz and especially Donovan Mitchell.

Again, here a link to the box score.

Team

The Jazz have allowed a 40-point game to three players this season (James Harden, Dennis Schroder, LaMarcus Aldridge) and have lost all three games.
All three of those games were the respective player’s career-high in points.
Two of those 40-point games have come in the last three games.
The 122 points scored by San Antonio were the most Utah has given up since Dec. 27 in a 126-101 loss to the Golden State Warriors.
Utah’s 34 rebounds were tied for the fifth fewest in franchise history for total rebounds in overtime games.
Before Tuesday, the Jazz were 10-0 in games where Ricky Rubio scored at least 20 points. Since then, the team is 1-2 in such games.
Friday’s loss was the first overtime loss this year. The Jazz were 2-0 in overtime games heading into yesterday’s contest.
In the last three games, starting point guards have averaged 29.7 points against the Jazz.
If Mitchell makes 14 more 3-pointers, the Jazz will have two players on this team pass Randy Foye, who held the Jazz 3-point record until Joe Ingles broke it a week ago.
The Jazz bench attempted zero free throws, steals and blocks. The starters took 29 free throws, had 10 steals and three blocks.

Donovan Mitchell

Mitchell attempted a career-high 36 field goals on his way to 35 points. That number set a rookie record for the Jazz, previously held by Aaron James (30 FGA on April 6, 1974).
He is one of five rookies to attempt 36 shots in a game. Mark Aguirre (40), Earl Monroe (39), (Dave Bing (38), Bob McAdoo (36). Mitchell’s 35 points are the fewest of of the five games.
Friday was the 21st time this season Mitchell’s field goal attempts have exceeded his point total.
Mitchell now has four games with 35-plus points, surpassing Darrell Griffith’s three.
Only three rookies since 2004 have had four games of 35-plus points (Mitchell, Kevin Durant, Blake Griffin).
He has seven steals in the past two games, placing him well within reach of Andrei Kirilenko’s Jazz rookie record of 116 (Mitchell has 105 with nine games remaining).
He is the only rookie in Jazz history to have a stat-line of 35 points, three assists, three rebounds and four steals.

Ricky Rubio

Rubio has made three 3-pointers in three straight games. That matches a career-high streak for him set earlier this year.
After going 7-7 from the free throw line, Rubio has shot 100 percent on free throws in 27 games this year.
With his 20 points Friday, he has as many 20-point games this year as in his last two years combined (13).

Rudy Gobert

Gobert started the month of March by averaging 18.9 points, 13.9 rebounds but has averaged just 12/7.5 in the last two games.
His seven-game streak of having two or more blocks ended. It was just the 10th time since the start of last season he has ended a game with zero blocks.

Joe Ingles

If he makes 15 more 3-pointers, he will become the 27th player in NBA history to make 200 threes in one year and the first in Jazz history.
With 13 points Friday, Ingles is the fourth player on the team to have a double-digit scoring streak of 10 games or more (Mitchell, Rubio, Rodney Hood, Gobert).
With his four assists, Ingles’ 2017-18 year ranks 10th in Jazz history for assists by a non-point guard (325). He is on pace to finish fifth (Gordon Hayward holds the record with 400 in 2013-14).

Quick Hits

Dante Exum had four points and four assists in his first four minutes, but had didn’t raise either stat in the last six minutes he played.
Royce O’Neale has not scored more than seven points since before the All-Star break (two points Friday)

Random Stat

The Jazz are 17-14 all-time in overtime games where both teams score more than 120 points.

Complex Stat

Donovan Mitchell is the fourth player ever to play 44 minutes, record four steals, four turnovers and make four 3-pointers.