Ricky Rubio is ‘leading the charge’ with Utah Jazz this season

With the Utah Jazz fighting for a spot in the Western Conference playoffs, rookie guard Donovan Mitchell said point guard Ricky Rubio has been at the head of the turnaround.

In the midst of an impressive turnaround during the second half of the 2017-18 NBA season, the Utah Jazz have found themselves back in the thick of the Western Conference playoff race.

The Jazz, who are winners of 16 of their last 20 games following a win over the Orlando Magic on Monday night, are currently in 10th place in the West Conference standings.

Utah is just 1.5 games behind the Denver Nuggets and the eighth and final playoff seed, and only trails the Portland Trail Blazers and the No. 3 seed by four games.

Amidst the strong late-season run by the Jazz, who is at the head of it all? Well, rookie standout Donovan Mitchell thinks it has been point guard Ricky Rubio.

"“We’ve been playing well,” Mitchell recently told NBC Sports in an interview. “You know Ricky [Rubio] has been leading the charge, after some time off he’s been great, and we’re just following his lead. Having Rudy [Gobert] back has definitely helped.“We’re making that playoff push. You know, this is around the time when certain teams get tired and kind of get relaxed and we’re using our energy to keep feeding into that and keep going.”"

After a rough first half of the regular season in his first year in Salt Lake City, Rubio has started to become more comfortable and find his groove within the Jazz system.

With 22 games left to play this year, Rubio is averaging a career-high 12.1 points, 5.3 assists, 4.3 rebounds and 1.5 steals in 29.3 minutes per game. In 60 appearances, he is shooting 38.1 percent from the field and 31.5 percent from beyond the arc.

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In the first 41 games for the Jazz this season, during which Rubio appeared and started in 40 of those games, the Spanish point guard averaged 11.6 points, 4.8 assists, four rebounds and 1.6 steals in 29.1 minutes per game. During that span, he shot 39.8 percent from the field and 29.7 percent from 3, while — according to Basketball-Reference — holding a game score of 8.5 and a plus/minus of -3.4.

Utah went 17-24 during that stretch.

In the 23 games since, Rubio has steadily improved. During that period, where Rubio has appeared and started in 20 games, the seventh-year guard has averaged 13 points, 6.2 assists, 5.0 rebounds and 1.4 steals in 29.7 minutes per game. He is also shooting much better, shooting 42.1 percent from the field and 36.4 percent from 3. According to Basketball-Reference, he is also holding a game score of 10.7 and a plus/minus of +6.3.

During that stretch, Utah has gone 17-6 overall to bring its overall record to 34-30.

Last month, Rubio even acknowledged that he has become more comfortable in Utah as the season has advanced, saying he initially “had a tough time adjusting to a new team.”

It’s safe to say Rubio is feeling much more comfortable and perhaps even more confident in his first season in Salt Lake City.

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Utah has certainly benefitted from it down the stretch of the season, with the point guard “leading the charge” as the Jazz try and grab a spot in the postseason.