Game Coverage

By the Stats: Utah’s playoff-clinching win over Lakers

The West must now officially #TakeNote

By Jason S. Walker@jwalker_sports Apr 9, 2018, 7:14am MDT

Sunday’s win sealed a playoff berth for the Utah Jazz. The buildup to the game had the feel of an impending letdown where the Jazz don’t play to their full potential, but that’s not what happened at all. Utah came out, punched the Lakers in the mouth, withstood runs, and finished with a 15-point win.

Box Score

UTA Notable Performers

Donovan Mitchell: 28 points, 9 rebounds, 8 assists

Joe Ingles: 22 points, 10 assists, 4 rebounds

Derrick Favors: 10 points, 13 rebounds, +30 plus/minus

LAL Notable Performers

Josh Hart: 25 points, 4 rebounds, 2 steals, 2 blocks

Tyler Ennis: 22 points, 6 rebounds, 3 steals

Team Stats/Trends

Utah shot above 50 percent on field goals for the 18th time this year. The Jazz are 18-0 in such games.
The Jazz had 35 assists as a team, marking their seventh game this year with 30-plus assists — the most in a season by the Jazz since 2010-11.
When the Jazz have at least 27 assists, they are 17-0.
Los Angeles shot just 39.8 percent overall from the field. It was the 16th time Utah has held a team under 40 percent — second in the league behind the 76ers (19).
Utah’s 18 turnovers were the most since March 13 when the Jazz had 22 against the Pistons. It was the 13th time they have had at least 18 turnovers.
In those 13 games, the Jazz have scored 100 points just four times (all four times they scored above 110).
The Jazz have shot below 70 percent on free throws in three straight games.
Utah has the NBA’s second-best winning percentage in games where a team shoots 70 percent or less on free throws (.800)
On Jan. 22, the Jazz had the NBA’s second-worst road record of 5-19. Since then, the Jazz are 15-1 on the road, the NBA’s best record.

Donovan Mitchell

Mitchell became the second rookie this year to record a game with 28 points, nine rebounds and eight assists (Lonzo Ball).
In his last five games, Mitchell is averaging 6.3 free throw attempts per game, most among rookies and 13th overall.
Sunday was Mitchell’s 27th game with 25-plus points, third-most by a rookie since 2000 behind only Carmelo Anthony (30) and Blake Griffin (28).

Joe Ingles

Before March, Ingles had zero games with 10 assists in his career. He now has four after Sunday.
Ingles is averaging 9.0 assists in his last five games, sixth in the NBA in that stretch.
With his 22 points to go along with his assists, Ingles became the first Jazz player since Trey Burke in the 2013-14 season to record a 20/10 game using points/assists (and did it almost four years to the day Burke did it — April 6, 2014)
Ingles went 9-12 Sunday, his best field goal percentage this season in a game where he had at least 10 field goal attempts.

Derrick Favors

Favors broke his streak of games without a double-double after scoring 10 points and leading the Jazz with 13 rebounds. The streak had reached a season-long of 19 games.
His +30 plus/minus was nearly double the next closest player (Rubio was +16).
Favors has missed his last 11 3-pointers after a stretch of nine games where he went 5-12.

Jae Crowder

Crowder’s 18 shots were his most in a Jazz uniform and most for him since 2016. Crowder is personally 5-0 in games where he takes at least 18 shots.
The Jazz are 11-1 in games where Crowder scores at least 14 points (he had 18 Sunday).
Since Crowder arrived in Utah, the Jazz are 21-5 with an average point differential of +10.0 points — the latter being an NBA-best in that span.

Quick Hits

Royce O’Neale eclipsed the 15-point mark for the third time this season. The Jazz are 3-0 in those games and 5-0 when he surpasses 13 points.
Dante Exum is third on the Jazz in free throw attempts in the last four games despite being eighth in minutes.
The Jazz are 3-0 when Exum plays at least 20 minutes and 5-0 when he plays at least 17 minutes (one of those five games he played 16:50 but I rounded up).
Ricky Rubio has played just 26 minutes in the last two games and is +23 in those minutes.
This year against the Jazz, Brook Lopez shot 6-27 and averaged 5.7 points (season average of 13.2). He was 0-10 in Sunday’s game.
Julius Randle scored 17 points but had just 4 points on three shots in the second half.

Random Stat

Donovan Mitchell is the first rookie this year to make exactly seven free throws in consecutive games and 12th player this season.

Complex Stat

Since the start of February, Ricky Rubio is averaging 16.1 points, 6.0 assists, 5.2 rebounds and is shooting 43.8 percent from three. He is the only player averaging 16/6/5/43 while also averaging fewer than three turnovers.