Jazz Sweep Mavericks, Six-Game Homestand

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – The Utah Jazz swept their six-game homestand and extended their overall win streak to 11 games with a 120-101 victory over the Dallas Mavericks.

While guard Donovan Mitchell missed his second consecutive game, Bojan Bogdanovic had his best performance of the season scoring 32 points on 10-16 shooing and 7-11 from three.

Joe Ingles made history passing John Stockton to become the team’s all-time leading three-point shooter with 846 career makes, while the team connected on at least 20 made threes for the seventh time in 19 games this season.

Mike Conley added 22 points for the Jazz in the win, while Rudy Gobert recorded a 17 point, 12 rebound double-double in the win.

Where The Jazz Missed Donovan Mitchell

It’s difficult to say the Jazz missed anyone tonight as the team ice skated to an easy 120-101 victory, but there were moments it was clear Donovan Mitchell was needed.

In the second quarter, Luka Doncic found his normal game penetrating against the Jazz defense, pulling up for mid-range jumpers, hitting turnaround shots, or kicking the ball out to his teammates where the help defense came from.

It was effective, and Dallas closed the Jazz lead from 27 to as little as 14 in the quarter. Though ultimately it didn’t matter, this is where Mitchell has enormous value for the Jazz as some who can create his own shot.

After Doncic’s made baskets, the Mavericks could set their defense and stimy the Jazz pick and roll, especially with Dwight Powell defending Rudy Gobert.

This is where you need a star scorer to take over a game for a few possessions to stem the Mavericks scoring and the Jazz didn’t have that player with Mitchell missing the game.

Mike Conley can do it for stretches, Jordan Clarkson can too, but neither player can do it as frequently as Mitchell.

The All-Star guard wasn’t at the game, and the team plans to fly to Denver immediately following the win, but Snyder after the game said both Mitchell and Derrick Favors are expected to travel to Denver.

Dallas Isn’t Very Good

As good as Doncic is, he might not yet be ready to carry a Dallas team that at this point simply lacks enough talent around him to compete.

For as much conversation as John Wall and Russell Westbrook get about their albatross contracts, Kristaps Porzingis’ deal might be equally debilitating.

The one-time ‘unicorn’ center is owed $100-million over the next three years and the Mavericks have been significantly better during this two-game series with their highest-paid player off the floor.

To be fair, the big man is coming off another knee injury this offseason that sidelined him for the first nine games of the season, but since then he’s yet to truly breakout. Porzinigs has had a negative plus-minus in six of his 10 outings so far, and overall is a -44 for the year.

It’s easy to lust after modern trends in the NBA, as many fans have with big men who can shoot the three, but it’s not automatically a fix, especially when that big might do so few other things well.

Dallas will have room for another max-player this offseason when Tim Hardaway Jr. and James Johnson come off the books and they desperately need to upgrade their top-tier talent. Then, they need to add defenders and shooters around Doncic and hope for the best.

It’s something the Jazz have done well that’s helped them become the best team in the NBA through the first 19 games of the season.

Until then, they might have Doncic performing at an MVP-level on a rudderless ship. They’ve done it before with Dirk Nowitzki, and eventually, they figured it out, but it’s going to be a challenge.

Fourmality

Though Quin Snyder’s rotations don’t reflect it, most games for the Jazz during the 11-game win streak have felt over before the beginning of the fourth quarter, turning the final 12 minutes into a formality.

We wrote about the Jazz having Golden State Warriors type stretches during quarters that essentially end games in a 6-12 minute run.

The Jazz will hit a handful of threes over a few possessions and turn a six point lead into an 18 point lead, and that will balloon to 20+ before the opponent catches their breath.

It’s gotten to the point where the Jazz are ending games after three quarters

It happened in both games against the Mavericks in this two-game series as the Jazz led by 26 and 22, it happened in game one against the New Orleans Pelicans last when the Jazz were +22 after three quarters, and it happened against the Cleveland Cavaliers when the Jazz were +28.

Even against the Atlanta Hawks the Jazz were +13 and had a win-probability of over 98 percent heading into the final 12 minutes of the game.

Snyder discussed what the big third quarter leads allow his team to do.

“The biggest thing is it’s given us an opportunity to figure out how to play with the lead,” Snyder said. “Teams do go on runs, and to be able to respond to those things and to figure out what we need to do or not do to allow that to happen.”

It allows the Jazz to both practice maintaining a lead but also gets their younger players on the floor. Without the ability to send young roster players down to the G League affiliate Salt Lake City Stars for the season, the Jazz are getting decent minutes for their first and second-year players against legitimate NBA competition.

Juwan Morgan and Miye Oni have been getting added minutes with Mitchell and Favors out of the lineup, but even Udoka Azubuike, Jarrell Brantley, and Shaq Harrison were able to get spare minutes late in the game.

The G League is incredibly valuable for players like Oni and Morgan who spent large stretches of the season last year with the Stars and look like reliable rotation players in spot situations.

Morgan finished the game with 12 points, seven rebounds, and three steals. The second-year big man also connected on 2-4 three-pointers, though he did foul out in 21 minutes.

Oni had a more modest performance recording four rebounds in 10 minutes, but three of them came on the offensive end in an explosive run to end the first quarter.

The Jazz are going to find themselves in a financial crunch next offseason, especially if they hope to resign Conley, so having these blowouts allow them to develop these young players without a traditional G League season for a few extra might be a huge benefit in the long term.