Instant analysis: Rudy Gobert block punctuates Jazz win over Bulls

Utah Jazz guard Donovan Mitchell (45) and Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert (27) defend Chicago Bulls center Nikola Vucevic (9) in Salt Lake City on Friday, April 2, 2021. | Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News

The Utah Jazz beat the Chicago Bulls 113-106 on Friday night at Vivint Arena, improving to 37-11 on the season.

High notes

• The Jazz were on their way to victory in the final seconds and Zach LaVine was headed to the basket for a bucket that wouldn’t have changed the outcome, but Rudy Gobert wouldn’t have it and made a monster block as the final buzzer sounded. A very strong way to punctuate a win.
• Donovan Mitchell, after missing Wednesday’s game in Memphis following the traumatic flight experience on Tuesday, looked a little out of rhythm to start the game but by the third quarter he seemed to have found his bounce again. For as rattled as he was after the Jazz’s flight had to make an emergency landing, it is a great sign that he didn’t need too long to get back into the swing of things. He scored 15 of his 26 points in the second half to lead the Jazz.
• The last few games Gobert has really been showing his footwork off and making some pretty impressive moves in the post. His touch is not always the best but he is also getting to the free throw line a lot, which proved very valuable on Friday when he went 7 of 8 from the charity stripe.
• In the second quarter Quin Snyder made a rare in-game rotation change specifically for defensive reasons. He subbed in Miye Oni for Georges Niang for just 1:24. It wasn’t a huge move but it is notable, especially as the season wears on and the playoffs near. Any sort of small chess moves could be foreshadowing.
• To say that the Jazz were the beneficiaries of some lucky bounces would be a little bit of an understatement after this game. Bojan Bogdanovic, Mike Conley and Gobert all put up some circus shots that if we’re being totally honest, they didn’t earn. But, at the very least they were fun to watch and made for a laugh, which I enjoy very much. Plus, it was all during a regular season game against the Bulls, who have now lost six straight.

• It should be noted though that all three of those players, in addition to those circus shots, were responsible for a large part of the Jazz’s offense and were incredibly valuable in holding things down and not letting the game get out of hand through the first half and then later providing a spark. Bogdanovic, Conley and Gobert combined for 50 points on the night.
• Let’s stay on Bogdanovic for a minute. He wasn’t aggressive from outside, but he was very aggressive in the paint on Friday and he seemed to enjoy the matchup with Thaddeus Young. Now, that’s not a great defensive matchup for Bogdanovic — Young did go off for 25 points — but he was really powerful with his drives and insistent on not letting Young look too great on the defensive end, which is a pretty impressive thing to do. To watch him really take it to Young showed a level of confidence that we haven’t seen from Bogdanovic in a while.

“Even the coaching staff are trying to involve me in some kind of post-up and mismatch to get a good feeling for the game right in the beginning. I’m trying to find what works with me as I’m struggling with my shots. I’m trying to post and get close to basket and try to draw the foul or shoot close the rim.” — Bojan Bogdanovic

• The Bulls defense is really physical and impressive. They really made the Jazz work for the win on Friday and that’s nice to see from a team that not only has a lot of new pieces but is also relatively young.

Low notes

• The Bulls’ off-ball movement is not something to marvel at. I mean, you can’t marvel at what isn’t there. It’s disappointing because they have a lot of good spacing and do nothing with it.
• The Bulls offense is not something that’s very fancy. They took just 10 3-pointers in the first half and they play a very basic pick and roll most of the time, but the Jazz were getting torched in the paint in the first quarter. The Jazz cleaned it up a bit in the second half, but then the Bulls just started to shoot more.

“We want to execute better on the defensive end. In some of those actions we were seeing Lauri Markkanen in the pick-and-roll, he peeled and slipped out the majority of the time, and they did a good job with him rolling tonight. We didn’t get under him and take that away. So, again, some things that we’re going to see, and we’ll have a chance to to dig in and do better.” — Jazz head coach Quin Snyder

Flat notes

• At this point in the season the Jazz having a pretty flat defensive night is not something that can really be disregarded. The Jazz average 12.1 fast-break points per game, which isn’t a ton, but when they aren’t scoring in transition at all and they aren’t getting back in transition it looks pretty bad, and so do the turnovers.

“It kind of hurt us on that end, especially in the first half. We give them a few layups. If we get a good shot or don’t turn it over they don’t get that, so that obviously that impacts us on defense. Also I think we got burnt with guys sprinting back and we’re kind of slow to turn around and jogging back or kind of hanging around for an offensive rebound but we don’t get it so we have to sprint and we’re late.” — Rudy Gobert

• Zach LaVine is averaging 42.8% from 3-point range this season and was just 2 of 8 from deep and the Bulls finished just 7 of 28.

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