By the Stats: Ricky Rubio gets his revenge against Minnesota Timberwolves

Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.

By Jason S. Walker@jwalker_sports Apr 2, 2018, 5:54pm MDT

NBA: Utah Jazz at Minnesota Timberwolves

Ricky Rubio took it to his former team, the Minnesota Timberwolves. It might not have been as sweet for Rubio as it could have been since Jeff Teague was out because of an undisclosed injury he suffered in the game previous to the T-Wolves matchup with the Utah Jazz. Still, it was great to see what the Jazz should be doing when the opposing team is down multiple starters.

Box Score (as always)

UTA Notable Performers

Ricky Rubio: 23 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists

Rudy Gobert: 6 points, 13 rebounds, 4 blocks

Donovan Mitchell: 21 points, 4 assists, 3 rebounds, 2 steals

MIN Notable Performers

Andrew Wiggins: 23 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals

Karl-Anthony Towns: 20 points, 7 rebounds

Team Stats/Trends

Utah went 46-76 (60.5 percent) from the field, the best overall percentage of the year.
The two lowest scoring starters, Joe Ingles and Rudy Gobert, had the two best plus/minus on the team (+21 and +22 respectively).
Minnesota was 13-14 (92.9 percent) from the free throw line. The Jazz were previously 0-3 in games where their opponent shot better than 92 percent from the line.
Every main rotation player except Jae Crowder had a plus/minus of at least +10 (Crowder was +9).
If the Jazz win the final two road games of the season, they will have a winning record on the road in back-to-back seasons for the first times since 1999-00/2000-01.
The Jazz bench shot 14 of the team’s 25 free throws and missed just two of those.
Every player on Utah’s active roster scored at least one point.

Ricky Rubio

Rubio made five 3-pointers for just the third time in his career and was one short of his career-high of six.
His five three pointers were almost as many as the rest of the team combined (six).
In his last 12 games, Rubio is shooting 53.1 percent from three
Rubio is on pace to set a career highs in 3-point percentage and 3-point attempts (33% and 3.5 3PA per game).
In six seasons (353 games) with the Timberwolves, Rubio had 22 games with 20-plus points. He has had 14 with Utah in one season (71 games).

Rudy Gobert

Gobert has now had back-to-back games with 10-plus rebounds but less than 10 points for the first time since 2016.
With four blocks, Gobert now has 29 games with at least four blocks in the last two years. That total is second only to Anthony Davis

Donovan Mitchell

Mitchell became the 94th rookie in NBA history to record 200 turnovers. He is the 24th rookie to do that since 2000 and the third in Jazz history (Karl Malone, Darrell Griffith)
After averaging 1.02 points per shot from March 20-28 (five games), Mitchell has averaged 1.43 points per shot in his last two games.
His streak of 20-point games is up to nine, tied with a pair of Carmelo Anthony nine-game stretches for fourth among rookies since 2000.
In that same time period, it’s also the fourth-longest 20-point game streak among all Jazz players.

Joe Ingles

In the last eight games, Ingles is averaging 7.8 assists per game which is fourth among forwards in that span.
Ingles’ +21 was his second-best plus/minus this year when scoring in single digits (his best was a +30 against Dallas in October, he scored three points in that game).
Sunday was the first time in his career Ingles has had more than six assists while also having zero turnovers.
Ingles became the 29th player this year to have a game with at least nine assists with no turnovers (Ricky Rubio is another one of those 29).

Dante Exum

Sunday was the fifth time in Exum’s career (and second time in a month) he has had 10 points and five assists. The Jazz are 4-1 in those games (2-0 this year)
It was just the third time he has attempted at least six free throws. And this game was the only one of those three where he made all of them.
In the last four games, Exum is first on the Jazz in field goal, 3-point, and free throw percentage (71.4/57.1/100).
In that same span, Exum’s field goal percentage is third among bench players.

Quick Hits

Jonas Jerebko topped 15 minutes for the first time since March 13, also scoring his most points in one game since then with 13 (16 on the 13th).
Derrick Favors has attempted two 3-pointers in four of his last six games and has shot 22.2 percent (2-9) in those games.
David Stockton made his first field goal as a member of the Jazz. It was a 3-pointer with 1:06 left to play and was also the last points scored by the Jazz in the game.
After being an overall -21 in a six-game stretch from March 17-28, Royce O’Neale is +29 in his last two games.

Random Stat

Joe Ingles, Ricky Rubio and Donovan Mitchell combined for zero free throws.

Complex Stat

Rudy Gobert now has eight career games with less than 10 points, 10 or more rebounds and at least four blocks. That number is tied for second with Hassan Whiteside since Gobert came into the league (2014-15).