SALT LAKE CITY — Perhaps we shouldn’t be too surprised by the Utah Jazz’s 121-105 win over the Memphis Grizzlies Monday night.
Perhaps we should stop being shocked that the Jazz built a 20-point lead as the Dickens defended, hit a bushel of 3-points, racked up a string of assists on their made baskets, and finished the game with five minutes left had fourth quarter.
Maybe the Jazz are just like that at the moment.
Of course, that can all change. This is your daily disclaimer, which is subject to change at any time. But the Jazz and the Milwaukee Bucks are the only two teams in the league with six wins. The Jazz are an offensive machine that scores more than 117 points a night. The Jazz was one of the most versatile teams in basketball.
These might just be who they are.
That doesn’t mean they won’t hit rough spots. And that doesn’t mean the sample size isn’t still tiny. But it was eight games and the Jazz played near-great basketball in at least five of them. Most of the time they play a nice tire brand for eight games.
Here are some thoughts on Monday night’s win, a win that saw six players score in double digits.
Markkanen’s efficient offensive
The beauty of Lauri Markkanen this season is that he’s not emphasizing Utah’s offense to deliver his own individual offense. The forward posted a team-high 31 points on Monday night. He took 15 shots to get there. He made 11 of those 15 shots. He went 4-of-5 from 3-point range. He made all his free throws.
He did not order the offense to accomplish that. The ball never stopped moving. The distance has never been compromised. We’ve said time and time again in that area, but Markkanen has been a revelation for jazz this season. Chicago Bulls fans must get sick to see Markkanen transform into this one. Cleveland Cavaliers fans are sleeping much better because Markkanen was the play that got them Donovan Mitchell, and Mitchell is currently playing at the MVP level.
But jazz fans must be over the moon. We knew Markkanen was a solid pro, only 25 years old, who had had a fine season in Cleveland. We saw how well he played in the EuroBasket over the summer and we thought Markkanen could make a nice leap if some of the stuff he did abroad could be translated.
This? Nobody expected that. Not even the Jazz that made the Mitchell deal with the Cavaliers, partly because Markkanen was included. So, here are some of the things he does that no one has really seen.
He defends at a very high level. Offensively, he causes mismatch after mismatch. He plays all three frontcourt courts depending on where his greatest advantage lies. He’s recovering at a high level. His points are effective. He scores in every respect. He shoots on all three planes. He gets out in the transition. He reaches the free-throw line. If he plays at this level all season, Markkanen will have put together the best small forward season the Jazz has seen since Gordon Hayward in 2016-2017, when Hayward was an All-Star and one of the better two-way players in the League. Markkanen is trending in that direction.
Most importantly, Markkanen is a foundational piece. In what is a fact-finding season for jazz, they now know they want Markkanen for the long haul. As highly as the front office thought of him when they acted for him, jazz may have unwittingly bumped into a star a year or two from the prime of his career. Regardless of how the season plays out in terms of wins and losses, Markkanen’s rise may prove to be Utah’s biggest win.
No backing down
On Monday night, the Jazz passed an exam they had repeatedly failed the previous season.
About midway through the third quarter, Memphis forward and resident mixer Dillon Brooks fouled Mike Conley on the midfield touchline. Brooks then got up, stood over Conley, growled and clapped. He then stepped over Conley, earning a technical foul and the wrath of the crowd at Vivint Arena.
Then Memphis emerged from an energetic perspective. They became more physical and defensively determined. They became more resilient on both ends of the floor. As questionable as Brooks’ play was, there was no question that the Grizzlies thrived on it. Soon, a nearly 20-point lead dwindled to 10. The crowd, who had seen this so often with most previous Jazz teams, groaned in anticipation of a Memphis Rally.
Utah coach Will Hardy called the time. He looked everyone on his team in the eye. And then he told them to calm down, stay in the game and don’t forget what gave them a sizable lead.
“Everyone will talk, it’s part of the game,” Hardy said. “But we didn’t want to forget what was most important at the moment. We didn’t want to miss that.”
Brooks was clearly trying to punk the jazz on Monday night. As ugly as the Conley incident looked, it was a spectacle. Conley was Brooks’ vet in Memphis, the one who taught him everything. The two are still close friends to this day. In fact, Conley laughed about the incident in the dressing room after the game. He knew the incident wasn’t going to get completely out of hand. Brooks does. He will do whatever it takes to get his team back in the game. You almost have to respect that kind of effort.
That night the Jazz showed hardness as they broke down on so many nights a year ago when a team tried to abuse them. That evening the jazz showed attitude. You came back. They ran their offense. They defended and generated stops defensively. Before they knew it, they had rebuilt a 21-point lead. By all accounts, that run ended the game in the third quarter. As the Jazz took on the bullying, the Grizzlies ran out of tactical answers that night. It was’nt easy. It required a time out. But jazz made it.
The thing everyone missed
In the superstar era, so many teams put together top-heavy rosters with great players at the top. The downside to this is that the fifth and sixth player in a squad usually means a sharp drop in the game.
The Jazz are a team without star players at the moment. But their depth is as deep as any team in the league right now. Malik Beasley is probably Utah’s seventh best player. If you put him in the Los Angeles Lakers tomorrow, he would probably be the third best player. Collin Sexton comes off the bench. Two seasons ago he was averaging 24 points per game.
Utah is deep and talented. The Jazz currently have 11 legitimate rotation players. Even rookie Ochai Agbaji has done very well in the minutes given to him.
When you combine that with the coaching that was done earlier in the season — the coaching was just great — you can see why the Jazz are 6-2 early.
It’s hard to believe that this is sustainable. We keep talking about how brutal Utah’s schedule is, but it’s absolutely brutal throughout the New Year. We always complain about the lack of a star player, but there is no star player in the squad.
But what if Markkanen is actually a star player? What if victories over Memphis, Minnesota, Denver and New Orleans aren’t accidental? What if… what if jazz was actually… good?
nope It’s still too early for that. We’re only eight games into it.
In a regular season format, depth and great coaching can win you many games. The Jazz is currently rolling out lineups for 48 minutes that don’t have much drop-off. Because of the coaching, they are teams to death distanced. They have so many good shooters that it’s difficult to count them all. They have so many guys who can handle the ball and dribble into the lane that it’s difficult for opponents to keep up with them.
It’s very difficult to play against them. That’s why they’re 6-2 so far.
(Photo by Lauri Markkanen: Garrett Ellwood/NBAE via Getty Images)