The Utah Jazz beat the San Antonio Spurs 126-94 with no problem at all at Vivint Arena on Wednesday night.
Meanwhile, the Phoenix Suns were blown out by the Atlanta Hawks, giving the Jazz a one-game lead as the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference.
High notes
- Well, well, well. Jordan Clarkson must have heard the recent discourse about his efficiency and production slipping. He finished with 30 points on 12 of 16 shooting, going 2 of 4 from 3-point range to go with six rebounds and four assists. He was doing it from every spot, through contact, in traffic, on pull-ups, off the dribble and in people’s faces. It was an excellent performance and one for the Sixth Man of the Year voters to look at.
“I’m a hooper...Slumps is part of what happens throughout a long season. It is what it is. I keep my head down, keep grinding, keep taking the shots that are there.” —Jordan Clarkson
- Also, early in the game, Clarkson scored with a mini version of the Joe Ingles pass fake in the pick and roll. That would be really great if Clarkson could start utilizing that in his game more often.
- Speaking of the PNR, Trent Forrest showed that he’s a little more adept than he’s previously shown. It looks like he’s taken quite a few tips and tricks from Mike Conley, patiently dribbling with a defender on his back before getting close enough for an easy floater. Very nice work by the two-way rookie.
- Bojan Bogdanovic has been playing so dominantly in the absence of Conley and Donovan Mitchell and he deserves a lot of credit for the success of the offense recently. He, too, was incredibly efficient, with 24 points on 10 of 13 shooting.
“I’m feeling pretty well personally. I’m just trying to be aggressive. I know the team needs me to score more without especially Donovan. I mean, he averages more than 25 points.” —Bojan Bogdanovic
- While the Spurs had some success on the offensive glass early in the game and ended up with a 9-7 advantage in offensive rebounds, the Jazz blew the doors off the Spurs in defensive rebounding 46-26. It was a real team effort on the boards and one of the better ones that I’ve seen from the Jazz in a while.
“Coach, he kind of got on us really hard about it because teams are crashing the glass and Rudy’s coming over to block shots, so we’ve got to box bigger guys out, so we’ve just really focused in on it.” —Jordan Clarkson
Low notes
- As I said, the Spurs were getting quite a few offensive boards in the first half. That’s something that has been a problem for the Jazz a few times this season. You’d like to see them deny those boards a little better. At least this time I can say that the secondary defense by the Jazz was pretty good, with the Spurs scoring just once on a second-chance opportunity in the first half.
- I legitimately don’t know how it happened. I must have blinked too many times. But Ersan Ilyasova played seven minutes and committed four fouls.
Flat notes
- The Spurs are one of the teams in a position to fight for a play-in spot, but as it stands right now they’d be the 10th seed, needing to win two games to earn a playoff berth. Well, they’ve lost five in a row and it’s been pretty difficult for them to string together wins all season. If you’re the Jazz, after beating them twice in a row on Monday and Wednesday, you’ve got to be hoping that they somehow pull it out and end up with the eighth seed and that’s who you face in the first round of the playoffs.
from Deseret News https://ift.tt/33qha0J
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