Instant analysis: Jazz take over in the fourth quarter to beat Celtics

Boston Celtics center Daniel Theis, left, drives to the basket against Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert, right, during the first half of an NBA basketball game, Tuesday, March 16, 2021, in Boston. | Charles Krupa, Associated Press

The Utah Jazz beat the Boston Celtics on the road 117-109 on Tuesday night, improving to 29-10 on the season.

High notes

• Rudy Gobert. I could stop right there, but that wouldn’t do him the justice he deserves. Coming off a loss to Golden State on Sunday that overshadowed his 24-point, career-high 28-rebound performance, Gobert was doing all the right things against the Celtics. He sparked a 12-2 run to open the fourth quarter on Tuesday that was capped by him playing excellent one-on-one defense against Jaylen Brown, blocking Brown’s shot and then sprinting to the other end for a lob pass and dunk. It wouldn’t be the last time he played great isolation defense to close the game. He closed out on Jayson Tatum and shut him down on multiple drives in one possession, and though he was a little quiet through the first half, he acquitted himself with a monstrous performance. He finished the night with 16 points, 12 rebounds, four blocks and about a million instances in which he deterred people from shooting or driving.

“One of the things, when we’ve talked about Rudy, is his activity — his ability to do multiple things on defense and to make multiple effort plays. When we’re solid with the other four guys that are on the court, he has a chance to be even more impactful. Really the biggest thing with Rudy is our ability to communicate with him and with whoever is in the game, or any action, because that allows him to make plays.” —Jazz head coach Quin Snyder

• The Jazz had quite a few possessions in which they played lockdown defense, and there were flashes of what we saw through the tear they went on the first half of the season. After quite a few games looking just off and unfocused, they looked like they started to get back on track, and that was true for the team collectively and for some individual players.
• Derrick Favors has had a tough stretch of games (that’s being generous) and was much, much better against the Celtics. You’ve got to hope he watches the film from this win and sees the difference in his game. He was more aggressive and was moving his hands more, and his timing was a lot better.
• Jordan Clarkson, whose efficiency and production has faltered over the last few games, had a bit of a bounce back night, too. He had 20 points and shot 5 of 10 from deep. But really, it was his passing on Tuesday that was most impressive. That’s not something that we often say about Clarkson, but he had some absolute dimes.

“Just another growth part of my game that I’m trying to keep improving on.” —Jordan Clarkson

• I liked that there were moments on Tuesday when the Jazz needed a bucket to stop a Celtics run and it was Joe Ingles and Mike Conley who provided it. Having the more veteran players stop a run and calm things is exactly what you want.
• Some fun heated exchanges between Brown and Donovan Mitchell. The two are very close friends off the court and that seems to make for more intense battles on the court. It reminded me about a time many years ago when LeBron James was talking about playing against Carmelo Anthony, who is one of his best friends. They wanted to go against each other and make the other one look bad. There are certainly rivalries between players that have beef with one another, but those friendly rivalries can be just as entertaining.

“It’s what’s fun. I love playing Boston and I think they say the same thing because we’re all cool with each other. I grew up knowing Jayson and Jaylen, Kemba (Walker) narrated my AAU team’s documentary, I’ve played against Tremont Waters in high school so like I know a lot of guys on the team and I think that what makes it fun. That right there [with Brown] was nothing. That was just he hit me, so I hit him back.” —Donovan Mitchell

Low notes

• The last few minutes of the fourth quarter, Mitchell had some great plays and hit a couple huge 3s that pretty much put the game away. But Mitchell has been a little off. He deferred a little bit once it was clear that he didn’t have it going on Tuesday, and he hit the monster treys late. Tut the Jazz have the weapons for him to be able to focus his energy on the defensive end and let him get into the game from that end rather than forcing. I’m not worried about Mitchell, just a note.
• Offensive rebounds and turnovers early and often were a big problem for the Jazz. Credit to the Celtics for clearly trying to build their game in transition and stealing some second-chance points. Those are absolutely areas where the Jazz have some flaws. The Jazz were able to overcome their mistakes on Tuesday, but it won’t be like that every time if they continue to give up the easy buckets.

Flat notes

• The first half of the first quarter for the Jazz was whatever is flatter than flat. It was a pothole in the middle of a flat road. Sloppy defense, bad shots, lack of focus, all of it. But, to their credit, they turned it around.
• Bojan Bogdanovic has had a rough stretch of games and though he had a couple of good moments against the Celtics as the game progressed, he was a huge part of the Jazz’s bad first quarter. He too turned it around later by working in the post, but the bad stretches from Bogdanovic feel really impactful and hard to rebound from, especially the live-ball turnovers.

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