The Triple Team: Jazz 76-point first half is enough for victory over Clippers


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SALT LAKE CITY — Three thoughts on the Utah Jazz's 125-113 win over the Los Angeles Clippers from KSL.com's Jazz beat writer, Andy Larsen.

1. Jazz's offense explodes in first half for 76 points

This game was about the Jazz's first-half offensive explosion. With their highest-scoring half of the season, the Jazz scored 76 points to get out to a huge lead early.

So many things went right in the first half throughout the team. Ricky Rubio had one of his best halves of the season, causing havoc on defense, getting out in transition, and finding open players for easy layups or dunks. Donovan Mitchell did a great job of setting up his teammates, too, especially Derrick Favors, who led the team in scoring in the half with 14. He also worked hard on the boards to get putbacks.

Alec Burks was cooking, as well, in the Rodney Hood role (who couldn't play due to the left leg injury that left sitting at the end of Friday night's game). Burks scored 13 points and did a nice job of attacking the Clippers' ugly closeouts.

Joe Ingles had his best game of the season, a 21-point performance that tied his career high. He had 13 of those points in the first half.

Everyone else contributed: all 10 Jazz players who played in the first half scored at least three points to add to the total.

So what happened? Well, the Clippers' defense was woefully lacking throughout: a lot of missed rotations, step-asides at the rim, that sort of thing. Meanwhile, the Jazz were in ball-movement mode, getting everything rolling without having the ball stick.

This play happened in the third quarter, but it kind of displayed just how confused the Clippers defense was all night. It's a sideline out of bounds play, but mostly, Ingles just jogs out to the 3-point line without someone guarding him. No substitutions were made before the play or anything, just ... Ingles was wide open.

This is some weird defense by the Clippers pic.twitter.com/pIAvl9PsaJ — Andy Larsen (@andyblarsen) January 21, 2018

So while the Jazz did play extremely well, in order to score that efficiently early, they needed some help too.

2. Donovan Mitchell no-look passes

It wasn't his best scoring night of the season, but Mitchell set up his teammates very nicely with seven assists. And while Mitchell notably scores with a lot of effective flair (spins, dunks and more), he's starting to learn how to pass with those same traits.

Mitchell had two no-look assists tonight that were really nice:

Those Spidey senses... 🕷👀#TakeNotepic.twitter.com/IdmCkKYI0L — Utah Jazz (@utahjazz) January 21, 2018

The spin there at the end is a little superfluous, but really moves the defense is the ball-fake. That gets Favors open under the rim with an easy finish.

And while Favors bobbles this alley-oop pass, I don't think that's because it was off target. Either way, he makes the finish.

If at first you don't succeed... Get out of Derrick Favors' way ¯_(ツ)_/¯ #TakeNotepic.twitter.com/kWkdAbZUQR — Utah Jazz (@utahjazz) January 21, 2018

Mitchell's passing ability has to improve quickly because so many teams are blocking his drives with defensive pressure, leaving him to decide and make the right play. It has so far, and now, he's starting to make more special passes than just "the right play." It's great to see.

3. The mood around the team

I think there's some understandable worry about the mood around the Utah Jazz right now. Coming into tonight, the team had only won five of their last 21 contests. That should be enough to put a damper on any team's happiness.

But then you add in all of the other stuff and it seems even more difficult. Rudy Gobert missed most of those games with his knee injuries. Thabo Sefolosha, one of the team leaders, just went out after needing knee surgery himself. Hood, Raul Neto and Joe Johnson have also battled injuries this season.

And then there's the trade situation: the Jazz are actively shopping both Favors and Hood right now with under three weeks to go until the trade deadline. Johnson and Burks have also frequently been named, though really everyone on the roster beyond Mitchell and Gobert aren't completely safe.

But tonight's game showed some of the style that this team likes to play with, and it requires a lot of chemistry. "Guys are moving the ball, sharing the ball, playing better on offense, thanking their shots and being aggressive," Favors explained after the game.

So when Ingles was asked about the mood around the locker room, he was really positive. "I love the guys on our team," he said. "And our coaching staff puts us in a good position to do what we need to do. It's a fun group to play with."

Here's an example of how this team likes each other, though it needs some backstory:

Ingles doesn't typically like doing post-game scrum interviews, preferring to talk on his radio segments on 1280 AM or, well, not at all. So he'll either try to leave the game very early before the media gets there or very late so that he doesn't get the chance to be asked questions. Usually, this isn't a huge problem, because we, the media, can talk to the other players on the team to get the full story.

But because of Ingles' 21-point career-high performance, he was a big part of the story. So the media waited until about an hour after the game ended to talk to Ingles. He was clearly perturbed that a group was still waiting to talk to him, and muttered while getting ready.

Finally, Ingles turned around to begin his interview. Just then, Gobert starts playing Natalie Imbruglia's "Torn" on his phone, completely breaking the ice while poking fun at Ingles' grumpiness after a win.

Ingles laughed, as does the entire media. Gobert smiled and exited stage right after some joking with Mitchell.

So yeah, it's not a perfect locker room situation, and everyone knows the Jazz could be headed for a shakeup. But the major pieces seem to legitimately have fun with each other in some great ways.

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