Utah Jazz middle Rudy Gobert (27) dunks over Memphis Grizzlies ahead Jaren Jackson Jr. (13) because the Utah Jazz and the Memphis Grizzlies play an NBA basketball recreation at Vivint Area in Salt Lake Metropolis on Tuesday, April 5, 2022. Scott G Winterton, Deseret Information
The Utah Jazz beat the Memphis Grizzlies, 121-115, in an additional time recreation that was some of the essential and most fun video games of the season.
The evening began with Jazz head coach Quin Snyder in assault mode, utilizing the pregame press convention to attempt to put a few of the current narratives surrounding the workforce to mattress. He pushed again on the concept that the Jazz can’t shut video games and that Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert have belief points on the court docket by speaking for greater than 20 minutes on the 2 topics with reporters.
The evening ended with the Jazz profitable an additional time recreation that assured them a top-6 end within the Western Convention.
Excessive notes
- There are undoubtedly video games the place you possibly can level to 1 participant or a few gamers who actually management what occurs. Generally I really feel like that occurs as a rule and that it’s extra uncommon to discover a recreation the place it feels just like the significant contributions come from all over. On Tuesday evening it felt like extra of a workforce effort than we’ve seen from the Jazz in a very long time and never simply in small ‘x participant had a great recreation’ methods.
- Jordan Clarkson was spectacular. He was sensible with the ball and was hitting massive photographs, creating for his teammates, making spotlight reel strikes within the paint and staying glued on the defensive finish.
“It’s good for us confidence-wise to win this recreation, transferring ahead into the playoffs, figuring out that we clinched already. However I feel for the morale, us speaking, us figuring it out us persevering with to speak, it’s good for us to drag this one out.” — Jordan Clarkson - Danuel Home Jr. was a defensive juggernaut for the Jazz on Tuesday. When he wasn’t rejecting screens, denying passing lanes, deflecting the ball and grabbing steals, he was flattening enormous, huge photographs for the Jazz.
“All I’m simply attempting to do is simply simply give the workforce no matter (they want). One of many issues that we attempt to inform one another is ‘don’t get hit on a display’, navigate by the screens so we are able to keep in our protection and play the way in which that we have to play and maintain the matchups.” — Danuel Home Jr. - Hassan Whiteside had some actually impactful and spectacular minutes for the Jazz and he additionally supplied some a lot wanted grit in moments when the Jazz regarded like they have been nearly to let up and chill out slightly.
- Mike Conley had one other recreation the place he confirmed a ton of emotion and acquired overvalued with the gang in massive moments all of the whereas placing on a formidable efficiency on either side of the ball. When Conley is getting rebounds in site visitors in opposition to an extended and rangey workforce just like the Grizzlies, it undoubtedly makes an enormous distinction.
- Donovan Mitchell had a fairly sluggish begin to his recreation on the offensive finish, however he by no means let that get to him the way in which that he has previously. He dug in deeper on the defensive aspect of issues and allowed that to dictate the way in which that the offense would transfer.
- The Jazz ran like loopy and so they pushed actually arduous to be sure that even when they didn’t get a transition bucket that they no less than have been going to make Memphis assume that they have been trying to rating. That type of urgency with the ball actually disrupts defenses and makes them overthink or generally simply out proper miss issues.
- Whereas the sport in opposition to the Grizzlies did embody some loopy performs from gamers on each groups and there have been ooh and ahh moments alongside the way in which in an additional time thriller, a very powerful factor is that the Jazz received the sport and so they clinched a playoff berth with the win. Now that they know that they aren’t going to fall into the Play-In Event, they could be a little extra deliberate with issues within the final three video games. They'll tank them in the event that they need to keep in sixth and attempt to get a sequence in opposition to the third seed, which proper now can be Golden State, or they might attempt to win out and get residence court docket benefit with the 4th seed regardless of who the fifth seed is. They might simply select to play their finest down the stretch and let the chips fall the place they might. Once more, a very powerful factor is that the Jazz are playoff sure and don’t want to fret about taking part in one other recreation between the April 10 remaining regular-season recreation in Portland and the primary recreation of the primary spherical of the playoffs.
Low notes
- Effectively we thought we knew what was occurring with Rudy Homosexual and Juancho Hernangomez, however it seems that we don’t 100% have that nailed down. Homosexual had two consecutive DNP-CDs after which Hernangomez was the one who didn’t see the ground on Tuesday. Possibly Snyder wasn’t simply paying lip service when he stated that it was going to rely upon matchups and totally different conditions. I suppose that we’ll see.
- Each time that I see a workforce within the NBA execute an ideal again lower, the very first thing that I feel is, “someplace there's a defender that was ball-watching and misplaced his man.” That was the Jazz on Tuesday with a few of the Grizzlies cuts and it appeared like as a rule it was Royce O’Neale who was dropping a person.
Flat notes
- I don’t need to take an excessive amount of away from the Jazz’s win over the Grizzlies as a result of it was properly fought and it did present a mentally robust aspect of the workforce that we haven’t usually seen this season, however it’s additionally essential to notice that it is a Grizzlies workforce that took the Jazz to additional time with Ja Morant and Dillon Brooks watching in road garments whereas injured.