The Morning After: Jazz at Nuggets – 12/13/13

Final Score: Jazz 103, Nuggets 93

Derrick Favors – Unleashed

Derrick Favors scored 19 points, grabbed 6 rebounds, blocked 4 shots and affected numerous others as he anchored the paint for the Utah Jazz. He’s now shooting 58% in his last 16 games, and 65% in his last 7. Even though Ty Lawson definitely appeared rusty and hampered in his return from a hamstring injury – Utah’s defense was arguably the most impressive aspect of last night’s win as they held the league’s 9th-best offense nearly 10 points below their season average.

Play of the Game: 8:02 4th-Qtr – With Denver leading 81-77, Nate Robinson drove to the basket where Derrick Favors smothered his layup at the rim – starting a 2-on-1 Utah fastbreak resulting in a Hayward-to-Burke layup. The play sparked a 10-2 Jazz run as Utah would go on to outscore the Nuggets 26-12 to close.

Favors’ 4 blocks were a season-high, giving him 7 in the last two games. The primary reason is the Jazz are finally putting him in a position to succeed – by allowing him to consistently play defense in the paint. I mention this constantly but last night provided the most crystal clear examples illustrating why Ty Corbin and Sydney Lowe have been stifling Utah’s potential with their pick&roll defensive strategy.

Watch and take note of Favors’ positioning (proximity to the basket) while also observing how little/much strain is being placed on Utah’s help defense:

Prior to Favors’ back injury, the Jazz asked their centers to show out hard on the ball-handler – and then recover to their man. The Heat often do this with their tremendous speed rotations utilizing the abilities of Wade, LeBron, Battier, Haslem, Bosh, Birdman, ect. That’s not Utah’s personnel.

Now, the Jazz are allowing their 5 to sit back in the lane – a la Roy Hibbert. By having their guard go over the screen – Utah’s defense is essentially funneling the ball-handler into the mid-range area while staying at home with shooters on the perimeter. Best of all, they’re keeping their primary shotblocker in the lane where they can utilize their size to their advantage rather than their lack of footspeed (not that Favors is slow, but he’s not faster than crisp passing).

It doesn’t take a genius to determine you would rather have an athletic 6-11 shotblocker within 15-feet of the rim instead of 24′. Among the many teams who defend in this manner – it’s what Frank Vogel has been doing with Roy Hibbert, what the Spurs have often switched to while relying on Tim Duncan’s presence, the style  Blazers are now adopting to limit opponents’ open 3pt-attempts, and what the Charlotte Bobcats are now doing to cover for Al Jefferson. Fool Ty Corbin once, shame on you. Fool him 200 times and he’ll make an adjustment.

Some media members are obsessed over Favors’ lack of a go-to move, but he is plenty good right now. He’s an incredibly efficient player scoring on pick&rolls, offensive-rebounds and dives to the rim – and defensively he can do things that maybe 10 big guys can do in the entire NBA. If he adds a bigtime consistent low-post move fine – but right now the Jazz are just letting him go out and play (at both ends) and it’s fun to see. 4 years/$47 million is looking better each night.

Offensive Stat Mining

After shooting 13-23 (57%) from behind the arc in Sacramento, you knew that mark was something the Jazz couldn’t sustain. It didn’t appear to be the case early on last night, as Utah shot 6-7 (86%) in the 1st-Qtr. In the 2nd-half they finally came back down to earth – shooting 1-7 in the 2nd-Qtr and 1-7 in the 2nd-Half to finish the game 8-21 (38%) from deep.

As I wrote during the preseason – Richard Jefferson had quietly become a good spot-up three-point shooter over the last several seasons. After shooting 19% from deep in the first 8 games, he’s now up to a respectable 39% for the season that helps offset his subpar defensive play. His 5-6 mid-range and 6-7 3pt-shooting in the past 2 games assuredly will not continue – but it’s still likely he will continue to hover around 40% on threes for the season.

Marvin Williams’ 3pt-shooting is something more interesting to keep an eye on. At 42% in 2013-14, Williams entered the season as a career 33% shooter from behind the arc, never shooting above 39% and shooting above 36% in a season just once. Perhaps it’s from receiving more open looks playing PF, perhaps he’s having one of those hot 3pt seasons (like Matt Harpring in 2002-03), perhaps he is indeed a much-improved shooter or perhaps he’s due for some regression in the final 57 games of the season.

It also raises the interesting question, why are the Jazz so willing to play a veteran stretch-4 next to Favors this season that stifles Kanter’s development while ignoring the tremendous potential of a Paul Millsap/Favors pairing? While the Marvin/Favors frontcourt duo entered last night’s game with a +3.5 Net-Rating, last season Millsap/Favors produced a +4.6 Net-Rating that was up to a whopping +10.3 in 2011-12.

Regardless, with Marvin in the lineup the Jazz offense has kicked into high-gear – averaging nearly 9 more FG attempts per game, 1.2 more FT attempts, 2.6 fewer turnovers and 3.5 more 3pt-attempts in his 7 starts. Conversely, their offensive rebound rate is down 2.4% – or about 2 offensive rebounds per game.

At the same time, it’s still premature to automatically assume those numbers dictate that simply replacing Kanter with Marvin results in a better Jazz team. While the offensive boost does reflect favorably for Marvin – it also coincides with the return of Trey Burke, who since replacing John Lucas at PG has made a world of difference for Utah on the offensive end. Marvin definitely gives the Jazz spacing for more 4-out-1-in sets, but does figure to cause Utah matchup problems against bigger teams.

In the games Trey Burke starts – the Jazz shoot better from virtually everywhere. They average 2.2 more FG attempts per game (shooting 3% higher), shoot 1.3 fewer FT’s, actually attempt 1.9 fewer threes (but shoot 10% better) and most importantly turn the ball over 4.2 fewer times. The discrepancy between Burke and Marvin’s offensive boost lies in the 4 more games Marvin missed last week. Although Kanter played very well individually – as a team Utah’s offensive output and efficiency declined although much of that could also be attributed to playing the league’s top-2 teams in 3 of the 4 games, as well as a weaker supporting cast that included big minutes for a less impressive RJ, Mike Harris and of course Andris Biedrins.

If you look at how Kanter played against Indiana and Portland – it’s clear he still has the same potential and ability to be a good player in this league that he did to start the season. How that’s able to happen with Marvin starting is unclear – but in order to meet Dennis Lindsey’s 3-D’s – this is something that must be sorted out.

The Final Word

The Jazz have played good basketball in a large portion of their last 8 games – showing some encouraging improvement at both ends of the court. Offensively much of that improvement is due to the return of Trey Burke – who now gives Utah a playmaker at point guard that makes the game easier for all of his teammates.

Defensively, the adjustment in defending the pick&roll is a welcomed change but before we go give Ty Corbin a medal – let’s remember coaching isn’t simply figuring out one defensive tactic and then calling it a day. It’s about constant adjustments.

Look at how Greg Popovich has altered the Spurs’ identity from a post-up/kick-out to 3pt-shooters team in his 1998-99 championship team that had virtually no perimeter playmakers – to a more versatile inside-outside team in the mid-2000’s to today’s masterpiece that is a hallmark for the modern-day perimeter-oriented motion/screen-roll/floor-spacing/3pt-shooting ensemble many teams are trying to perfect.

Furthermore, look at Utah’s franchise where Jerry Sloan altered his system from the Stockton&Malone offense to fit the talents of the 2003-04 talent-devoid team and then back to more of the Stockton&Malone system with many tweaks to better suit the Deron/Boozer teams.

Each year coaches have a different team with players possessing different strengths and weaknesses. Taking 20 games (which is generous given you could argue it’s closer to 1-2 seasons) too long to adjust something obvious like pick&roll defense (that also includes flawed initial thinking) is certainly less than ideal for a professional basketball coach. Where 1 game can determine homecourt advantage, 5 games playoff potential and 10 games between meaningful basketball in March/April – perhaps the only thing saving Corbin now is Utah’s horrid start put them in such an embarrassing hole that low expectations have since plummeted to absurd levels where a single win regardless of opponent is now being hailed as a phenomenal coaching achievement.

To his credit, Corbin has adjusted Utah’s offense from the predominant low-post (Al-fense) centered around Al Jefferson to more of a versatile screen-roll system (which also magnifies the lack of diversity in last year’s strategy and foresight). He’s doing a better job utilizing timeouts to stop the flow and break offensive/defensive lulls and is being a little more creative with is lineups and rotations. Last night I thought he was smart to leave Jeremy Evans in until about the 4-min mark of the 4th-Qtr which gave Utah a nice lift on the boards.

If you thought Ty was a good coach from the beginning then you’re probably overjoyed (or stumbling around blindly – just kidding but not really) after the past couple games. If you thought he’s been a poor coach for much of his first 2 1/2 seasons then the start to this season probably has cemented that belief. If you were on the fence, it’s unlikely a 2-game win streak or the recent 4-game slide set amidst the backdrop of a 6-19 season is enough to sway you either way. As of today, Ty Corbin is still a lame duck coach without a contract extending past this season – and I think that fact speaks loudest of all.

Looking Ahead

With the 18-4 San Antonio Spurs coming to town, the Jazz have a great opportunity to show they can repeat their recent hot-streak against a high-caliber opponent. With San Antonio playing on the second night of a back-to-back (after Duncan played 36 and Parker 35 minutes), the Jazz have a good chance to jump on the Spurs early  – similar to their last meeting where strong performances by Favors and Burks allowed them to play from ahead much of the night before a 4th-Qtr meltdown gave San Antonio a 91-82 victory.

This time around, the Jazz have Trey Burke back playing terrific basketball in getting his teammates quality looks, they have Gordon Hayward (who probably had the best game of his career last night and I should have mentioned more), Alec Burks and Derrick Favors all rolling to go along with the hot-shooting of veteran journeyman Jefferson and Williams.

Pop is still the best – and it will be interesting to see how he defends Burke in the pick&roll tonight, how he attacks Marvin at PF, and if he tries to go big with Duncan&Splitter. The Jazz are still only 6-19, but their recent play provides not only more hope for the future but also plenty of intrigue in a game that on paper looks like a mismatch.

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The Morning After: Pacers at Jazz – 12/4/13

Final Score: Pacers 95, Jazz 86

Run It Back

Player(s) of the Game: Derrick Favors and Enes Kanter.
Seeing essentially their first action together since the 1st-half in Dallas six games ago, Favors and Kanter  showed they can definitely play effectively together. The two combined for 42 points and 23 rebounds on 17-36 shooting and 8-8 from the foul line. In 30 1/2 minutes playing together, the Jazz were +4 over the Pacers. Of course that means in the other 17 1/2 they were -13.

Favors played Hibbert strong and it felt good to see Kanter enjoy success. After battling confidence issues since his demotion, he was back to playing rather than over-thinking. Still has a few little things to clean up, but a major step in the right direction.

Run of the Game: Utah opened the 4th-Qtr with Kanter posting and scoring over Ian Mahinmi to give the Jazz a 69-68 lead. Over the final 11 minutes, the Pacers out-scored the Jazz 27-17 with half-court precision and a stifling defense that led to transition opportunities.

Best Move: 2:51 1st-Qtr – With Roy Hibbert on the ground battling Favors for rebound position, Trey Burke wisely pushed the ball in the open court, using a beautiful hesitation and cross-over to blow past George Hill and finish with a layup with no shot-blocker in the paint. That play sums up the lift Burke gives the Jazz – a point guard who can control the pace but also understands when to attack – and has the ability to be a playmaker in the open-court.

See A Different Game

Trey Burke had another impressive performance with 13 points and a game-high 9 assists (he should’ve had a minimum of 11 with a couple of point-blank looks missed by Favors and Kanter) and just 1 turnover. Burke shot 5-12 from the field and 2-2 from behind the arc.

The interesting thing is that of 4 Burke’s 5 field goals came in transition – 3 layups and a right-wing pull-up three. Burke’s lone half-court basket was a catch&shoot three off a Richard Jefferson penetration&kickout.

The Pacers did a fantastic job taking away the threes and layup attempts Burke was getting via pick&roll the past three games. In high screen-roll last night, Burke shot 0-5 from the floor to go along with 1 turnover and 3 assists. A couple of Burke’s misses were open shots you feel comfortable with him taking while the rest were the types of contested/semi-rushed pull-up jumpers that the Indiana Pacers typically force.

As you can see, on high screen-roll the Pacers (#3 George Hill) goes over the screen which chases the ball-handler off the 3pt-line. Roy Hibbert (#55) always drops back off the screener into the lane, where he is put into position to address his responsibility of defending the paint. As a result, the Pacers bait you into shooting that pull-up mid-range jumper – one that often comes with an open look at the rim but also can be rushed with a defender challenging from behind.

This is what helps make Indiana so good defensively – they keep their rim-protector in the paint to defend and stay at home on the perimeter so they don’t get caught in many 3-on-4 disadvantages that often a accompany a big showing out hard then trying to recover.

On side screen-roll the Pacers normally tried to force baseline into help where they gave up the pick&pop jumper to the screener. Kanter and Favors were able to take advantage by shooting 5-8 in side pick&roll situations. As a team Utah shot 7-13 in side screen-roll to go along with 2 turnovers for 16 points. Even on their empty possessions, they still got excellent looks (such as a turnover the result of a fumbled pass by Kanter who had a wide-open 6-footer, Favors missing a wide-open 12-foot baseline jumper, and Favors not being able to put down a dunk over Mahinmi).

The Pacers are a terrific defensive team, but given the open shots Favors and Kanter were receiving – next time I think the Jazz would like to run a few more side pick&rolls where they got good looks rather than high screen-roll which plays more into the Pacers’ strategy.

I Don’t Get It!

The biggest surprise to me was following the game when Trey Burke said the Pacers’ pick&roll defensive tactics caught him off guard.

Question: “Anything surprise you about what [Pacers] did in the 1st or 2nd half?”

“Yeah I would say the pick&roll coverage, you know they were kinda lulling us into shooting that 5-foot jump shot…there was a couple of times I came off and kinda held it a little bit when I jumped in the air…and I think those are shots that I can definitely hit – they tried to stay in the corners with the shooters so it wasn’t like I could come off and hit Gordon or Alec in the corner cause they stayed…it was just a matter of just executing.” -Burke.

As you can see – that is who the Pacers are defensively (when watching focus on the defender guarding the screener).

When I heard these comments I wanted to shout from the roof-tops:
WHAT HAVE THE COACHES BEEN DOING?!

It’s mind-boggling to me that a professional basketball team can play the Pacers and afterward have a point guard who was unprepared for their screen-roll defense. Considering Burke is a rookie playing just his NBA 8th game and facing Indiana for the first time, you can’t fault him. With an off-day and playing at home (in a game the opponent also chose to play offense in front of their own bench in the 2nd-half), it is entirely on the coaching staff to prepare their team for this.

Even this idiot wrote two days ago that after torching the Rockets’ screen-roll defense, Burke would need to convert from mid-range against Indiana. It’s like playing the Broncos and being surprised afterward that they played 11 personnel (1RB1TE = 3WRs) so often. You might not have success against it – but you shouldn’t be surprised about their tendencies.

(Oh and if any Jazz coaches or players are reading this your next opponent, the 16-3 Portland Trailblazers defend high screen-roll in a similar manner).

Odds and Ends

• Wednesday’s official attendance of 15,519 marks a season-low and (re)sets the mark as the 2nd-lowest figure in the 23-year history of the Delta Center/Energy Solutions Arena (that the Jazz have set three times this season). The 2013-14 Jazz now hold 3 of the 4 and 5 of the 11 smallest crowds in DC/ESA history.
• Enes Kanter and Brandon Rush vented frustration at each other (10:16 4th-Qtr) on a play where Burks had a reverse-layup blocked that led to a George dunk in transition. Racing back on defense, Kanter repeatedly motioned for Rush to stop ball while Rush retreated as if he expected Kanter to do so. After the basket Kanter said something to Rush who slammed the ball down in frustration and barked back at Kanter. Heat of the moment play, but not one we’ve seen in live action too often.
• Favors and Kanter became the first pair of Jazz players to post 20-points/10-rebounds in the same game since Favors and Millsap did it March 4, 2013 in Milwaukee.
• Favors has shot 56% in the last 13 games and currently sits at 51% for the season.

The Final Word

The Jazz got out to a quick start and gave good effort overall. Favors and Kanter showed they could play effectively together (like they did last season) and despite a cold-shooting night from Hayward (3-14) and some depleted depth (no Marvin or Evans), Utah still held a 1-point lead early in the 4th-quarter. Richard Jefferson again struggled mightily to the point it may be time for a change at SF with Marvin or Burks (who played another strong game) getting the nod.

The most disconcerting thing was the apparent lack of preparation by the Jazz coaching staff for Indiana’s screen-roll defense. It’s not simply looking at losses and drawing the conclusion that a poor job is being done. It’s little incidents like these that add up over 3 years.

As John Wooden said, “Failing to prepare is preparing to fail. The Jazz have built a little momentum recently and finally appear to be playing near potential. A fundamental key to coaching is putting your players in the best position to succeed. I’m not sure better preparation would have produced any better results against Indiana, but with youth and not a great deal of experience – preparation is the one thing the Jazz can control. It may not have been great last night, but it needs to be in the future. Trey Burke deserves that.

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The Morning After: Suns at Jazz – 11/29/13

Final Score: Suns 112, Jazz 101

Last night Jeff Hornacek returned to Utah to host his own pick&roll-athon, raising awareness for the chronic ailment of awful screen-roll defense sponsored by the Corbin-Lowe foundation.

Run It Back

Best Play: 5:18 3rd-Qtr – This play perfectly illustrates the difference between a brilliant offensive mind and one that hasn’t distinguished itself in multiple seasons as a head coach. As you have probably noticed, the Jazz often run early-offense pick&roll where they pass to their big at the top of the key (often Favors) who takes one dribble toward the wing and hands-off to the SG/SF for a quick side pick&roll.

Well the Suns open up with this same motion with Miles Plumlee handing off to Goran Dragic on the right-wing but following the handoff/screen Plumlee rolls to the basket while Markief Morris then comes up to the top of the key to set a second ball-screen for Dragic. After Plumlee rolls down the lane he circulates over to the left-block receiving a cross-screen from P.J. Tucker along the baseline. Morris sets the second ball-screen for Dragic and as he rolls to the rim, P.J. Tucker (after cross-screening for Plumlee) comes up and sets a back-screen for Morris on the second roll. Dragic swings the ball to Bledsoe on the weakside, giving the passing angle to hit Morris for a layup.

Rested and ready with a fully healthy roster and comparable talent – Utah had every reason to play their best game of the season, but Ty Corbin was playing checkers while Jeff Hornacek played chess.

Best Execution: 2:05 2nd-Qtr –The Suns run Dragic/Frye pick&pop up top with Dragic dribbling left – while simultaneously running cross-screen action with P.J. Tucker backscreening Favors to set up Plumlee on the block. With everyone focused on the screen-roll, Plumlee springs wide open and Dragic hits him for an uncontested 5-foot hook.
Matt Harpring’s reaction: “Too many wide open looks for the Phoenix Suns.”

Best JazzBasketball Play: 6:45 2nd-Qtr – Tied at 42-42, the Suns swung the ball to Markieff Morris on the left wing, then ran a baseline cross-screen with Dragic screening for Plumlee coming to the left-block, which gave Dragic an advantage as his man (Burks) had to help front Plumlee on the cross-screen – and allowed Dragic to pop out off a pindown for an open catch&shoot 16-footer. The Jazz ran this for years with Stockton cross-screening for Malone and popping out to the foul line.

I know some people love the “moneyball” concept – but what many fail to understand is “a 16-footer” is not the same as “an open rhythm catch&shoot 16-footer.” Jazzbasketball has produced top-10 offenses by putting players in these positions for layups, threes and open mid-range jumpers.

While Hornacek’s Suns do play heavily into the 3pt/layup shot selection, if you watched last night’s game you would see they ran several set plays to get open 15-foot jumpers (i.e. open foul line jumper for P.J. Tucker in early 3rd-Qtr).

You don’t think Hayward would to come off a screen for an open catch&shoot 15-footer instead of running a bazillion miles to take a contested long two?
On the other hand, you can shoot 20 threes and make 5 like the Jazz did last night. Silly me, silly Jerry Sloan and silly Phil Johnson. How can you not love the bastardization modernization of “Jazzbasketball?”

“The Jazz just aren’t a three-point shooting team, you gotta know who you are – and the Jazz are dead-last in the NBA in three-point shooting – 30% – they’re not that team. Phoenix is that team they (Suns) shoot the ball well and they only allow 33% shooting from other teams…right now the Jazz are playing Phoenix’s style…everything that Phoenix wants to do – they’re doing. The Jazz have taken nothing away from the Phoenix Suns and credit Jeff Hornacek and the way he coaches.” -Matt Harpring during 3rd-qtr.

Jazz Pick&Roll/Suns Defense – 1st-Half

The Jazz started out with a 33-point 1st-quarter and the Suns opened the game having their bigs show out on the pick&roll:
11:41 1st-Qtr – Hayward/Favors high screen-roll, Tucker and Frye both jump out on Hayward who hits Favors rolling down the lane for a dunk.

10:03 1st-Qtr – Burke/Marvin side pick&roll – Suns forced baseline and because Marvin has 3pt-range, Phoenix can’t cover the ground in time and Marvin strokes a three to put Utah up 9-0 and force a Suns timeout.

4:39 1st-Qtr – Hayward/Favors high screen-roll with Favors rolling down lane, drawing the help-defense and kicking out to Marvin for an open corner-three to pull Utah within 22-20.

Jazz Pick&roll/Suns Defense – 2nd-Half

In the 3rd-quarter the Suns’ had some great stretches of screen-roll defense by defending the way alot of great teams do, by pushing the ball-handler away from the screen and funneling him into their length (bigman).

4:20 3rd-Qtr – Hayward/Favors high screen-roll guarded by Tucker/Plumlee. Tucker forces Hayward away from the screen and into a drive funneling him into Plumlee sitting back in the lane. They push Hayward baseline behind the basket and then pick-off his attempted pass out to Marvin for a three – which Markieff Morris turns into a fastbreak layup.

3:54 3rd-Qtr – Burke/Favors high screen-roll guarded by Bledsoe/Plumlee. Again they force Burke to drive away from the screen into Plumlee where they push him underneath the basket. Burke passes out to Marvin for a corner-three but Bledsoe races out to contest. Marvin misses, Dragic rebounds. Because the Jazz are trying so hard to space the floor by playing 4 3pt-shooters, only Favors is positioned beneath the basket to get an offensive rebound.

3:18 3rd-Qtr – Hayward/Favors side pick&roll guarded by Tucker/Plumlee. The Suns force baseline, with Tucker funneling Hayward into Plumlee, and Bledsoe on the weakside drops down to take away Favors diving down the lane. Hayward tries to dribble through Tucker and Plumlee who strip him and force a jumpball.

On all three of these possessions, Suns assistant Mike Longabardi (defensive coordinator and former Boston assistant under Rivers/Thibadeau) was up on his feet shouting instructions.

The Jazz then enjoyed some success clearing out the left side of the floor and running side pick&roll, where Burke was able to use his speed to get wide around Plumlee and drive to the baseline for either a pull-up jumper (1:54 3rd-Qtr) or get to the rim for a layup (1:07 3rd-Qtr).

The Suns and Longabardi adjusted:
0:51 3rd-Qtr – On Phoenix’s next possession following the Burke layup, Markieff Morris went to the line. Between FT’s, Bledsoe walked up and whispered something to him.

0:38 3rd-Qtr – On the next possession Utah runs a Burke/Kanter side pick&roll guarded by Bledsoe/Morris. The Suns “blitz,” aggressively trapping Burke – actually pushing him all the way back to about 40-feet from the basket, where he tries a pass to Kanter who himself is 23-feet from the basket that was deflected out-of-bounds.

0:07 3rd-Qtr – On Utah’s final possession of the quarter, they ran a Burke/Kanter high screen-roll guarded by Goodwin/Morris. On the Root Sports broadcast, you can hear Mike Longabardi on the sideline shouting “Switch it! Switch it!” – which makes sense because with less than 7-seconds left – there’s not enough time to get burned with a guard stuck on a big in the post. Sound concept but in this case, Morris was late switching out and Burke pulled up and stuck a three as a bewildered Longabardi turned his back to the court following the basket.

Nevertheless, the Suns’ coaching staff adjusted, communicated, made sound tactical decsions and continued to adjust.

During the 4th-quarter the Phoenix bench was fun to watch as the Suns lost some aggression. Hornacek and Longabardi looked like they were living and dying on many defensive possessions. After quick shots, Hornacek was urging his players to pass and move the ball while Longabardi was shouting instructions defensively. When they got stops Longabardi was applauding, when they allowed an easy basket both Hornacek and Longabardi would swing their fist in frustration. It reminded me of how Jerry Sloan in the 90’s and early 2000’s would slide up and down the sideline trying to urge his team to D-up and where to help from, then tell his team to push-it in transition with a sideways circular motion (not always to fastbreak but to set the tempo by getting into their offense early).

Jazz Pick&Roll Defense – 1st-Half

The Jazz again started the game having their bigs show out on the pick&roll. On the first pass they had some success but the Suns would re-screen which completely annihilated Utah’s defense, and before long it was business as usual on the initial screen.

8:10 1st-Qtr – Dragic/Frye high screen-roll, Marvin steps out and Burke goes under, but Phoenix re-screens the opposite direction so Marvin (stepping out) and Burke (going under) are both caught top-side and Frye pins both of them for Dragic to drive to the basket for a layup and a foul.

5:37 2nd-Qtr – The Suns came out of a timeout leading 44-43 and cleared the right-side of the court for a Bledsoe/Plumlee pick&roll. Bledsoe drove the lane, forcing Favors to help before lofting a pass to Plumlee rolling in on the right side for a layup.

4:41 2nd-Qtr – Richard Jefferson missed a contested corner-three and Phoenix pushed it hard in transition, resulting in several mismatches including Jeremy Evans guarding Eric Bledsoe. With a big guy on him, the Suns ran high screen-roll where Evans got caught up on the screen and Bledsoe pulled up for a wide-open three to put Phoenix ahead 51-43.

3:25 2nd-Qtr – Suns ran a Dragic/Plumlee screen-roll with Favors showing out hard, forcing Evans to rotate to Plumlee which left Channing Frye wide open for a three to put Phoenix up 54-45.

Jazz Pick&Roll Defense – 2nd-Half

At halftime, Sidney Lowe was asked how the Jazz are supposed to defend the high pick&roll:

“Well if it’s a shooter, supposed-we’re supposed to uh-jump out, one-out – the guard goes over and then under and then get in front of him so he can’t get into the paint, and then the uh-the big guy that’s on the screener’s supposed to get back to his man quickly so they don’t get a chance to swing it and get a shot.”
…
“We just have to fire through quicker, uh, our aggression and our speed – I think their speed is bothering us a lot right now.”

Here’s how Utah’s screen-roll defense started the second-half:
11:37 3rd-Qtr – Dragic/Plumlee high screen-roll guarded by Burke/Favors. Burke goes over, Favors shows out, Dragic immediately fires a bounce pass to Plumlee rolling to the basket where he catches and finishes a 6-foot jump hook over Richard Jefferson. 64-51 Suns.

9:07 3rd-Qtr – Dragic/Plumlee high screen-roll guarded by Burke/Favors. Burke goes over, Favors shows out – Plumlee rolls and Marvin drops down to pick him up – leaving Frye wide-open for a top-of-the-key three. Splash.

7:07 3rd-Qtr – A double high-screen roll that the I detailed the Pelicans used to torch Utah 11/20/13, starting with Dragic handling, Plumlee rolling and Frye popping. Favors has to show out to the left-wing and then race back 18-feet to Frye at the top-of-the-circle for a catch&shoot three that puts Phoenix up 76-62.

6:30 3rd-Qtr – Suns run same exact play – this time Favors shows out and Marvin follows Fry to 3pt-line – so Dragic hits Plumlee rolling open to the rim where Hayward fouls him on a layup attempt at the rim.

3:34 3rd-Qtr – Bledsoe/Morris high screen-roll guarded by Hayward and Marvin. The Jazz instantly  switch – so Hayward is left guarding the 6-10 245-pound Morris, who goes down and punishes him on the left-block – shooting a turn-around over Hayward for a 84-69 Suns lead.

Andris Biedrins
David Locke is funny. The irrelevant Andris Biedrins absurdly saw playing time over Rudy Gobert, so Locke tweets out: “First defensive possession and Andris Biedrins may have had the best big man rotation of the night. It was noticeable.”

Now in the real world we all live in, here were Biedrins’ first three possessions:
3:46 4th-Qtr – Biedrins, guarding Frye on the perimeter, is called for a kicked-ball violation with Frye trying to hit Dragic on a backcut. No rotation involved whatsoever.

3:35 4th-Qtr – Dragic/Frye screen-roll guarded by Burks/Biedrins. Biedrins steps out on Dragic impeding his dribble while Frye rolls down the lane – which forces Jeremy Evans’ defensive rotation. As a result, Bledsoe was left open for a wide-open catch&shoot three that he missed.

3:01 4th-Qtr –Dragic/Frye high screen-roll again guarded by Burks/Biedrins. Biedrins shows out leaving Frye open on the right wing for a wide-open pick&pop three – that again missed.

Biedrins did nothing better than Favors or Marvin had the entire night – the only difference is the Suns happened to miss open-threes while he was on the court. Either Locke isn’t aware that the bigs’ responsibility is to show and recover (very possible but also inexcusable considering he was the one who interviewed Sidney Lowe at halftime) or he’s just embellishing the play in an effort to support the credibility of Tyrone Corbin’s decision-making. Either scenario is plausible, but both are wrong. Don’t believe me go back and watch – the tape doesn’t lie.

Also important to note – Biedrins (or Favors and Marvin) aren’t doing anything blatantly wrong – it just speaks to the big-picture problems with Utah’s screen-roll strategy that Sidney Lowe outlined. They truly expect their bigs to show out hard 20-feet from the basket and then race back and recover on the screener before he has a chance to score or pass. Unless you have a frontcourt of a Scottie Pippen, LeBron James and Dennis Rodman, you’re going to encounter problems doing this consistently.

As a result, the Jazz are still ending up in a ton of 4-on-3 disadvantages where not only are they scrambling in confusion to find the open man, but their bigman is now no longer protecting the rim but rather trying to get back into the play 20-feet from the basket. The Heat might have the most success defending this way, but last I checked the Jazz didn’t have a defensive personnel crew matching LeBron, Wade, Battier, Haslem and Birdman.

The Final Word

The Jazz should have beaten the Suns last night, after 3 days off, fully healthy, with a decent-sized crowd (even though the “GreenOut” fizzled) and a Suns team with comparable 1-12 talent and depth. The difference is the Suns have a style and system that they are using to maximize their ability with a bunch of players now filling it up who (with the exception of Bledsoe) nobody else really wanted.

You can argue Utah’s problems rest entirely on the inability of their young players to make plays, but consider this: Utah again started Marvin Williams in place of Enes Kanter – who has been much-maligned for his defensive ineffectiveness. Against Phoenix, Marvin had a D-Rating of 132, while Kanter and Favors both posted D-Ratings of 133. Logically, shouldn’t Marvin Williams’ mobility and athleticism advantage over Kanter result in better rotations and “jump-outs” defending the pick&roll.

Utah may not have many stalwarts defensively, but their problems all start with the coaching staff. And when you consider that, how can you properly evaluate anyone’s performance this season? How can you judge Favors’ 1.4 blocks per game when he’s jumping out on point guards then racing 20-feet back to find his own man? Conversely, the Suns start both Goran Dragic and Channing Frye – yet are 12th in the NBA in Defensive Rating. You don’t think coaching plays a role in that?

The Jazz have some things working in their favor. Burke played one of his better games offensively, Marvin Williams continues to produce in a leading role, Burks had a productive game, Evans continues to play well and Utah still possesses more frontcourt talent than Phoenix. In a rematch 24 hours later, the Jazz should be able to compete with the Suns. Unfortunately, “should” doesn’t mean much this season. After all Jeff Hornacek should be coaching the Jazz, but he’s not.

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The Morning After: Jazz at Pelicans – 11/20/13

Final Score: Pelicans 105, Jazz 98

Run It Back

Best Shot: 5:50 4th-Qtr – On high screen roll, Trey Burke faked Jrue Holiday like he was utilizing the screen going right, crossed behind-his-back and came back middle where he hit a pull-up 3 to pull Utah within 90-82. More on Burke later.

Best Move(s): 10:14 3rd-Qtr – Enes Kanter hit a Jack Sikma reverse-pivot face-up jumper over Jason Smith stepping off the right block.
9:02 3rd-Qtr – 3 possessions later Kanter found himself in the same position. This time Smith had to crowd him to takeaway the jumper so Kanter put the ball on the floor, drove baseline and finished with a reverse dunk similar to the hammer he put on Cole Aldrich in the 2012 preseason. This is the basic move/counter-move setup that great bigmen utilize. Good offensive game for Kanter with 19 points on 8-13 shooting. Appeared to struggle defensively but not all of that was his fault (will elaborate later).

Best Drive: 1:39 1st-Qtr – Alec Burks drove baseline around Evans and converted a hanging up-and-under reverse layup under the outstretched arms of Ryan Anderson.

Best Execution: 7:07 3rd-Qtr – With 2.7 left on the shotclock and inbounding from the baseline, Utah wrapped Lucas off a 4-man picket fence for a wide-open layup. Lucas started the 3rd-quarter on fire, with 11 points in the first 5-minutes. He cooled down with two misses and a turnover that led to two Pelican fastbreak layups, but raised his 3pt% from 24% to 31%. 14 points shooting 4-5 behind the arc – I’ll take that like it’s already Christmas.

Best Block: 9:23 3rd-Qtr – Anthony Davis was jogging back on defense when he got to midcourt and saw an open Hayward on the right wing where he sprinted 15-feet like a Cheetah pouncing on his prey to emphatically block Hayward’s three out-of-bounds. What a player Davis is already, he’s going to be a nightmare to face 4x/season for the next decade.

 Stat of the Game: Gordon Hayward shot 1-17, dropping his FG% from 43% to 40%.

Gordon Hayward’s Misses

1. 19-foot baseline jumper fading to his left with the 7-footer Smith lunging out at him (off Jazz’s standard screen-the-screener baseline out-of-bounds play).
2. Step-back three behind Favors’ hand-off with Anthony Davis challenging.
3. Missed layup off curl with Smith challenging.
4. 20-footer from top-of-the-key off pin-down with Eric Gordon’s hand in his face.
5. Screen-roll yielded a switch with Davis on him, going 1-on-1 Hayward’s step-back three was partially blocked.
6. Pull-up 18-footer in-and-out. Wide-open look but bizarre timing, Jazz ran after a Pelicans’ make and Hayward shot with 20-seconds left in 1st-Qtr – too late for a 2-for-1.
7. Catch-and-shoot three from top-of-the-key, pretty clean look with a late challenge by Davis.
8. Left-wing transition catch-and-shoot three with Davis flying out but another good look.
9. Open baseline jumper fading to right off baseline-out-of-bounds play.
10. Wide-open pull-up 15-footer off high screen-roll.
11. Wide-open transition three that Davis blocked from the backside.
12. Wide-open left corner three against New Orleans zone.
13. Open top-of-the-key three vs New Orleans zone.
14. Side screen-roll, drive down lane emphatically rejected by Tyreke Evans.
15. Must-shoot contested three from right wing with shotclock winding down.
16. Left-corner three off kickout from Burke.

Hayward started the game taking some difficult low-percentage shots, then spent the rest of the game missing a lot of makeable looks. Maybe the early misses caused him to start pressing or maybe it just wasn’t his night at all, but while a few misses rimmed out a good portion weren’t even close. I’m no shooting expert but when you take a lot of tough shots on the move or have them altered by length, sometimes that’s enough to break your mechanics down. This is the same guy who scored 27 on 12 shots in the win last Wednesday so I expect a strong bounceback game from Gordon Friday night.

Trey Burke’s Debut

Trey Burke began his NBA career in impressive fashion, with 11 points, 1 assist, and no turnovers in 12-minutes of play.

A few noteworthy plays:
1. 3:43 1st-Qtr – Drove left on Brian Roberts down lane and converted finger-roll with Anthony Davis challenging for first career points.
2. 0:45 st-Qtr – Drove left off high screen-roll for another layup. Love how Burke was strong with the ball and used veteran-like patience and hesitation to let Amundson (guarding the screener) show out, where he then used Amundson’s recovery path as interference to start his drive.
3. 11:07 2nd-Qtr – High screen-roll, Pelicans show out and Burks comes off the screen wide enough to fire a laser right-hand pass off-the-bounce to rolling Favors for a layup.
4. 11:22 4th-Qtr – On Utah’s first possession of the quarter, Favors drew a double in the post and kicked out to a wide-open Burke who missed a three. Burke didn’t hang his head and on next possession dogged Austin Rivers to disrupt a dribble-handoff leading to runout lay-in.
5. 9:16 4^th-Qtr – High screen-roll between Burke/Favors netted no advantage initially so they re-screened and this time Burke made an outstanding bounce pass to Favors down the lane. Favors missed but got the rebound and scored.
6. 7:22 4th-Qtr – High-screen roll Burksecame off really hard and wide, forcing Anderson (showing out) to switch onto him where he then hit a step-back 20-footer from the left wing.
7. 5:50 4th-Qtr – High screen roll where Burke faked using the screen and crossed back middle and hit pull-up 3.

Burke was the best screen-roll point guard in college basketball and that was evident last night. He knew when to come off hard and wide to stretch the defense and force a switch, how to use the lumbering bigman defender to create interference and most importantly was able to make shots.

Quickness is often attributed to his game, but I love how Burke is “strong with the ball.” He’s able to take contact while getting to his spots, and he’s able to use his off-arm to create just enough separation on his drives to the basket. There are a lot of quick guards in the NBA who can’t get into the lane consistently because they need a clean path. Burke can use screen-roll to his advantage and then turn that half-step into a full-one because of his craftiness and “point guard strength.” Only 12 minutes, but he showed everything we hoped from him in his brief appearance.

Screen-roll Defense

Sorry to beat this like a drum but it’s the primary reason the Jazz rank 25th in the NBA in points allowed per 100 possessions. As is often the case, Utah’s screen-roll defense involved having their big (guarding the screener) show out while the guard fights over the screen, then recover back.

The Good
7:07 1st-Qtr – A Jrue Holiday/Jason Smith high screen-roll (guarded by Hayward/Kanter), where Kanter showed out and Smith rolled free down lane, caught the pass but Richard Jefferson (who left non-shooter Al-Farouq Aminu in corner) rotated to make a spectacular block at the rim.

This is probably how Corbin and Lowe envision their pick&roll defense working.
The problem is not only are you relying on your 6-7 SF to block a 7-footer at the rim, you leave atleast one wing wide-open and as I wrote in last weekend’s Jazz/Warriors Breakdown, even if you do rotate properly, you’re still left with mismatch disadvantages if the offense choses to back the ball out.

The Bad
2:36 1st-Qtr – A Brian Roberts/Anthony Davis screen-roll with Favors showing out, forcing Evans to rotate to Davis rolling down lane leaving Evans’ man – sharpshooter Ryan Anderson – wide-open for three.

6:50 2nd-Qtr – High-screen roll where you’re asking Favors to show out on Holiday and then recover and beat a rolling Anthony Davis to the rim after Davis has a 5-foot head start. Layup for Davis in an unfair footrace for Favors.

1:01 2nd-Qtr – Jason Smith pick&pop with Kanter not able to show and recover to him in time. The only strongside help capable of rotating in time was Favors who’s guarding Davis on the baseline. If Kanter can’t teleport from the foul line area to the right win in half-a-second, this play is virtually impossible to defend with this sort of strategy.

6:11 3rd-Qtr – More show and recover screen-roll defense gives Holiday a wide-open 5-footer where Kanter briefly shows then runs back to the screener (Anderson camping out at the 3pt-line) and Lucas (trailing Holiday by about 8-feet) was unable to catch up.

0:24 3rd-Qtr – High-screen roll where the Jazz made a good recovery and chased Anderson off the 3pt-line, but he drove and kicked to Jason Smith who Evans raced out to but fouled on the close-out. Again – the constant scramble to recover just puts you in bad situations and your opponent in advantageous ones.

How Did Ryan Anderson Get Free?

New Orleans took advantage of Utah’s screen-roll defense with a clever wrinkle. The Pelicans ran a pick&roll with 7-footer Jason Smith setting the screen, but instead of rolling to the rim Smith screened then ran and set a pindown screen for Ryan Anderson stepping back to the 3-point line.

Considering the Jazz have problems guarding basic pick&roll – this caused mass confusion that they never could decipher.

11:47 2nd-Qtr – Pelicans ran a Brian Roberts/Luois Amundson side screen-roll, where Amundson ball-screens for Roberts then off-ball screens for Ryan Anderson stepping back behind the arc. With Favors showing on the ball-handler Roberts, there was no one to help Harris (matched up on Anderson) being screened by Amundson. Harris oddly decided to run through the screen and picked up a foul that was tacked onto Anderson’s three.

10:11 2nd-Qtr – Another wrinkle. Double side screen-roll with both Amundson (vs Favors) and Anderson (vs Harris) ball-screening for Roberts. Anderson pops and Amundson rolls, Favors shows out and there was a miscommunication with Favors expecting a switch but Harris stayed with Anderson while Favors initially recovered toward Anderson also – and Amundson broke open for a layup

9:39 2nd-Qtr – Pelicans ran the exact same thing on the very next possession, this time Favors recovered straight to Amundson but still fouled him at the rim. Basically Favors had to jump out almost to the 3pt-line and then race the pass 20-feet to Amundson at the rim. Favors covered a lot of ground quickly but nobody is faster than the basketball. It’s like a human racing a speeding bullet. And people wonder why Favors doesn’t have more blocks…

1:21 3rd-Qtr – Pelicans showed high screen roll with Austin Rivers and Anderson, but instead they slipped Anderson and ran him off a (big-on-big) flare screen. Evans was out of position ready to show out when Anderson slipped, and was then picked off trailing. Kanter (guarding Smith) didn’t show out fast enough and Anderson hit his second three.

8:52 4th-Qtr – High screen-roll with Roberts/Smith, Jeremy Evans (guarding Smith) shows out on Roberts, Smith rolls and sets a pindown screen for Anderson. Favors – guarding Anderson – again had no one to help him on the screen and Anderson’s open three put New Orleans up 84-73 forcing a Jazz timeout.

8:14 4th-Qtr – On the Pelicans’ very next possession they run the same play –  a Roberts/Smith screen-roll. Kanter (in for Evans) shows out on Roberts, Smith rolls and sets a pindown screen for Anderson, no help available for Favors, Anderson three – splash. 87-73 Pelicans.

Not sure what the Jazz discussed in their timeout, but it apparently didn’t involve adjustments to counter this which had now resulted in three Anderson 3-pointers.

1:39 4th-Qtr – For good measure, Pelicans close out with a basic Holiday/Davis high screen-roll – Kanter shows out, Davis rolls free for dunk (no way Kanter can race back in time). Unlike RJ’s 1st-Qtr block, the only potential strongside help could come from Favors who was guarding the red-hot Anderson. Leave Anderson open or pick up Davis? The nightmares of a 4-on-3 dilemma.

Odds and Ends

• Utah’s point guards combined for 29 points, 9 assists and 4 turnovers on 12-22 shooting
• Root Sports mentioned Karl Malone had a 1-16 game. It should be noted that performance came when Malone was 39 years old, playing in the second night of a back-to-back, and facing the eventual NBA Champions. Not all 1-16 (or 1-17) games are created equal.

The Final Word

Plenty of encouraging signs last night. Trey Burke looked really good in limited action. Enes Kanter played very well offensively. Jeremy Evans is healthy and again showcasing the mid-range jumper he unveiled in summer league. The Jazz limited their turnovers to 14 after committing just 10 Monday night.

Utah’s pick&roll defense is awful – but I feel that as long as the current coaching staff is in place that will be the case. Hopefully as Trey Burke’s role increases, Utah’s offensive production will as well which could allow them to stay in more games since relying on defense doesn’t appear to be a viable option. Trey Burke is back, and that alone marks another new and exciting chapter for the development of this team.

Finally, if anyone was going to torch Utah’s abhorrent screen-roll defense, I’m glad it was Ryan Anderson. After all he’s been though, it’s nice to see him playing well in his first couple games back.

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The Morning After: Jazz at Celtics – 11/6/13

Final Score: Celtics 97, Jazz 87
In Zach Lowe’s Tuesday encounter with Ty Corbin, Lowe mentioned “it seemed like Derrick Favors and Kanter were coming out pretty far [defending] pick-and-rolls” in Utah’s loss to Houston last Saturday. That observation was evident in Utah’s screen-roll defense against Boston last night.

Utah’s strategy early on was clearly to have their bigs show out – in other words they’re responsible to take 2-3 steps out on the ball-handler (ideally widening his trajectory coming off the screen) until the guard has a chance to recover going over/under on the screen. They then need to recover back to their original man (the screener who likely either rolls/pops). Keep that in mind.

The Jazz’s 10-point road loss to the 0-4 Celtics was a game that took on three different lives of its own. The Jazz started strong, the Celtics then pummeled them to the point of no return, but the Jazz finished strong to make things interesting late. While the Jazz are 0-5, losing to the Celtics after trailing by 25 in the 3rd-quarter is simply unacceptable, and I’ll explain why Utah’s disastrous middle stretch of play was also easily avoidable.

Here are the 3 stretches which will be broken down individually:

1. 16-3 Jazz in the first 5 minutes.
2. 67-29 Celtics in next 25 minutes.
3. 42-27 Jazz in final 18 minutes.

1. Jazz: 16 Celtics: 3

Jazz Offense: The Jazz began the game with good precision and ball/player movement.

-10:25 1st-Qtr – Utah’s first basket via their halfcourt offense came when reversing ball and running Hayward off a curl (w/Favors screening) where he caught the ball on the move, drew 3 defenders and dished to an open Favors for a layup. Hayward got a step on his man by the quick ball-reversal and subsequent screen which allowed him to catch the ball at the left-elbow 17-feet from the basket.

-9:45 1st-Qtr – Celtics forced side-screen roll between Tinsley&Kanter baseline, resulting in Kanter stepping back for an 18-foot jumper.

-7:37 1st-Qtr – Hayward made a similar curl, this time off a stagger-screen where he caught the ball at 18-feet on the left-wing, drove middle to collapse the defense then dished to the screener (Kanter) for an open layup.

-6:48 1st-Qtr – With smaller guards defending him, Hayward was able to post out of horns, with Favors feeding him from the high-post and Hayward turning deep post-position into a 12-foot stepback jumper.

Jazz Defense: Utah’s halfcourt defense also had early success.

-9:31 1st-Qtr – Favors showed out on screen-roll and then deflected the pass while recovering to his man (Bass – who had an open jumpshot).

-9:18 1st-Qtr – Jeff Green drove baseline on Richard Jefferson, but Kanter rotated from the weakside to force Green to take a pull-up floater. Even battling 1-on-2, Favors pulled down the rebound and with 3 Celtics in the paint, Utah was able to fastbreak that Hayward finished with a dunk.

-Three times Vitor Faverani screwed up the Celtics’ high screen-roll in the 1st-qtr. Twice he rolled, got the ball and missed challenged but point-blank shots at the rim and the third time he was blocked by Favors (on a play the Celtics had a wide-open shooter on the weakside).

-Favors had 7 defensive rebs in the 1st-Qtr and on his boards he looked to outlet quickly which got the Jazz some early offense.

2. Celtics: 67 Jazz: 29

Jazz Offense: Utah’s offense completely fell apart in the 2nd-qtr, shooting just 4-17 with 7 turnovers.

Halfcourt Execution:
-5:48 1st-Qtr – Celtics again forced screen-roll baseline this time with Tinsley&Gobert. Gobert (not a shooter) dove to the basket but Celtics collapsed down. Utah needed a strongside shooter to space the floor and with no one there Tinsley was forced to drive into help and had his shot blocked from behind.
-11:39 2nd-Qtr – Side screen-roll where Burks was able to drive middle but Jazz were a mess on the weakside and poor floor-spacing resulted in Burks getting knocked off balance on penetration and throwing the ball out-of-bounds.

Missing Makeable Shots:
-10:04 2nd-Qtr – Another side screen-roll got Lucas open 10-footer in the lane but he missed.
-7:46 2nd-Qtr – Favors drew help on a post-up but Mike Harris missed a open foul line jumper.
-10:48 3rd-Qtr – Utah executed a high screen-roll with Favors sucking in defense on roll and Tinsley hitting Jefferson at top of key for an open three but RJ missed.
Not enough execution and when Utah did – they couldn’t convert, and off Utah’s misses the Celtics were able to push the tempo and got some great looks in transition before Utah’s defense could set up.

Bizarre Turnovers:
-0:56 1st-Qtr – On a fastbreak Lucas veered off and tried to run up Olynyk’s back where Phil Pressey came from behind and picked him clean.
-7:24 2nd-Qtr – In transition Burks passed between two Jazz players out of bounds.
-3:34 2nd-Qtr – Utah was called for an in-bound turnover where Favors bobbled the ball before passing in to Tinsley.

Jazz Defense: The game began to change when both coaches went to their bench. At 5:56 1st-Qtr Brad Stevens subbed out Vitor Faverani – who’s in ability to convert was killing Boston’s screen-roll.

-5:56 1st-Qtr – Jeff Green and1 layup. Side screen-roll, where Richard Jefferson gave Green the baseline drive like he thought he was funneling Green into a big but Favors was playing up on the screener. Gobert arrived too late and fouled Green who scored anyway. Jefferson and Favors both talked to one another after the play.

-2:15 1st-Qtr – The Celtics vaunted high screen-roll between Phil Pressey and Jared Sullinger began to pick apart Utah’s defense. Kanter (guarding Sullinger the screener) aggressively showed out, forcing Favors to pick up Sully rolling to rim. Pressey swung the ball to Favors’ man (Olynyk on the weakside) which forced Hayward to rotate – and Olynyk simply swung the ball to Hayward’s man in the corner (Wallace) for a wide-open three to pull Boston within 6.

-1:12 1st-Qtr – Kanter again showed out hard on Pressey 25-feet from the basket – giving Sullinger a wide-open jumpshot that he missed this time. This became a pattern, and at 0:23 1st-Qtr Gobert showing out resulted in another 3pt that Wallace knocked down.

Again, Kanter and Gobert aren’t players with the lateral quickness or footspeed to show out and then race back 20 feet. All the Jazz were doing was taking them out of the play and putting the rest of the team in a 4-on-3 disadvantage.

-5:25 2nd-Qtr – Undersized PF Mike Harris showed he could defend the screen-roll effectively in this manner – with a near-steal showing out hard on Avery Bradley.

-2:36 2nd-Qtr – Kanter was back in defending screen-roll, and more of the norm with Boston swining the ball to Avery Bradley for an open 20-footer off Utah’s scramble rotation.

-11:12 3rd-Qtr – Favors showed out on Jordan Crawford (Jordan freakin Crawford!) 24-feet from the rim, then had to race back to the basket but arrived too late to prevent Olynyk from simply rolling down the lane for a layup.

Utah’s play deteriorated to the point that conversations like this by Jazz announcers Craig Bolerjack and Matt Harpring became welcomed distractions for viewers:
Boler: “Courtney Lee comes in and Green comes out. (4 seconds of silence). What a name to have in Boston…Green.”
Harpring: “That was deep Boler. Please tell me you didn’t sit in your hotel room and think about that one.”
Boler: “That one just came to me.”

3. Jazz: 42 Celtics: 27

Jazz Defense: 2:58 & 2:30 3rd-Qtr – Boston scored on 2 consecutive screen-roll possessions where they picked apart their 4-on-3 numbers advantage with a Sullinger layup and a Courtney Lee corner-three.

Trailing 79-55 with 2:24 left in the quarter, the Jazz took a timeout.
On their very next defensive possession Utah changed their pick&roll defense. This time, they opted to stop the drive and go over. Here, the big defending the screener sags off and defends the paint while the guard/wing goes over the screen and trails the ball-handler from behind.

In this situation, the big is back in the lane and still in position to play the drive as well as pick up the screener rolling to the rim. Instead of 4-on-3, it became more of a 2-on-2 game with Utah daring the ball-handler to take a quick mid-range shot off the bounce. A John Stockton, Chris Paul or even a James Harden can counter this and it isn’t effective against side screen-roll. Against Boston’s mediocre playmakers in the middle of the floor? This worked very well to Utah’s advantage.

Jazz Offense: The Jazz got back to their own screen-roll with Hayward looking to attack. Utah’s offensive production increased but I’m not sure their execution did. Of Utah’s 12 4th-qtr baskets, 4 were low percentage long-2’s that were contested, 3 were offensive rebound putbacks and 1 was off a fastbreak. A few brilliant plays – like Hayward’s baseline drive and feed to Kanter for a hammer dunk but the Celtics did some very foolish things to allow Utah points (for example at 7:48 4th-Qtr they overhelped on Mike Harris in pick&roll leaving Kanter open underneath the basket for a layup).

Regardless, in the 4th-qtr the Jazz shot 12-24 with 16 of their 25 points coming in the paint. That’s closer to a winning formula for this team.

The Final Word

Overall it was a dreadful performance by the Jazz but Utah’s start and finish partially demonstrate the effect of competent pick&roll defense. While I wish Ty would have adjusted Utah’s screen-roll defense sooner (like at halftime), fortunately he did and that helped Utah get back in the game.

That also answered some of Zach Lowe’s questions: Yes the Jazz do often have their bigs defend the pick&roll far away from the rim and yes they are capable of making adjustments when facing circumstances such as a 25-point deficit to an 0-4 team.

The Celtics’ roster is dreadful, yet they beat the Jazz by double-figures. Furthermore, looking at the talent-level of the Magic (who beat the Clippers) and Suns (who last night took the Spurs down to the wire in San Antonio) makes one thing clear. You can be competitive and win games with mediocre talent – but you must have sound strategy and execution.

Ty Corbin has been fairly decent at handling in-game adjustments and lineups this season, but for the Jazz to win games he needs to be good. Waiting 10-minutes too long to make adjustments will lose this team games, even against opponents who have less talent than the Jazz. Whether that’s completely fair to Utah’s 4th-year coach or not – it’s the nature of the business. As Corbin says quite often, it is what it is and nobody’s going to feel sorry for him.

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