Utah at Memphis
Time: 7 PM CST (ESPN), Friday
Spread: TBA
Total: TBA
The Utah Jazz is 8-3 and currently atop the Northwest division. Winners of its last four, the Jazz will host the surprisingly decent Memphis Grizzlies in the first of an NBA ESPN doubleheader on Friday.
UTAH
The Jazz has knocked off the Brooklyn Nets, Golden State Warriors, Milwaukee Bucks, and Philadelphia 76ers over its four-game win streak. Utah is doing it in its own style, so to speak, differing from the majority of the Association in both its style and its tempo. Despite averaging the fourth-fewest points of any team at 104.5 per game, Utah is holding teams to under 100 points per game, which is a major accomplishment in this high scoring era of NBA basketball. Credit Defensive Player of the Year Rudy Gobert for much of this, but Utah plays excellent defense on the perimeter and Gobert does the rest with his top-notch rim protection and contesting of shots.
In terms of offense, the Jazz does have a couple of premier weapons in third-year shooting guard Donovan Mitchell and newly-acquired swingman Bojan Bogdanovic. Mitchell is coming off a poor postseason performance in 2019, but he seems to have shaken it off early this season while he is posting 25.1 points per game, along with 5.2 rebounds and 4.1 assists. Bogdanovic, meanwhile, is just shy of 20 points per game while knocking down a healthy 43.8 percent of his triples. He has embraced the role of a No. 2 option after being considered little more than a good floor spacer prior to this season.
Perhaps the biggest and only disappointment for Utah has been that of Mike Conley, who was acquired to replace Ricky Rubio who departed for Phoenix. Conley is shooting a putrid 36 percent from the field and 34 percent from three while having perhaps his worst season as a pro. However, over the course of Utah’s recent win streak, he has looked more like the Conley we were used to seeing while he was with the Memphis Grizzlies. Over his last four, he is averaging 19 points per game along with 4.25 assists.
That is just the start because the Jazz needs both his defensive skills and his leadership to be the true contending team that it might be. Trailing only the Los Angeles Lakers in the Western Conference picture, Utah might even gun for a No. 1 seed in the postseason. So, despite being a team that does not light up the scoreboard with impressive scoring numbers, Utah’s unorthodox approach has resulted in nothing short of a contending basketball team.
MEMPHIS
The Memphis Grizzlies is 4-7 on the season with a 2-4 mark at home where it hosts the Utah Jazz Friday night.
Memphis is not a contending team and is almost destined for the lottery, but its play has been inspiring for a team clearly mired in a rebuild. It begins with rookie Ja Morant from Murray State, as he has been nothing short of incredible for a rookie floor general. Morant dazzled March Madness viewers when his Murray State Racers pulled a nice upset in the opening round of the tournament, but what he has done thus far in the Association tops that, even. Morant has averaged 18.3 points and 5.8 assists in just 27 minutes a night, clearly looking like a candidate for this year’s Rookie of the Year award (probably in the running with Miami Heat’s Kendrick Nunn).
No. 2 scorer and second-year forward Jaren Jackson Jr. have been slightly disappointing, but his improvement has been clear enough. Jackson is averaging 14.3 points and 5.2 rebounds per game and provides some court stretching with his good three-point shooting ability.
Dillon Brooks is wildly inefficient, but he is not afraid to take shots on a team that needs that. Brooks tallies 13.6 points per game in his 27 minutes of play, but he shoots just 40 percent from the field. Rookie Brandon Clarke seems like a savvy veteran and quietly makes a massive impact on both ends of the court. Clarke is a good rebounder at 6.5 per game in just 22 minutes, and Jonas Valanciunas is having a good season in his first full year as a Grizzly.
Overall, this team lacks depth and is relying on a lot of unproven and inexperienced talents, but it far from the worst team in the league and could threaten to win 35-games if the improvements keep coming with the intense efforts of the young players that are eager to earn their spots in the NBA.
