Utah Jazz: How Rudy Gobert has helped save the season

While going through a rough stretch, the return of star center Rudy Gobert helped save the Utah Jazz season and put them in the mix for a possible trip to the playoffs.

The Utah Jazz were heading down a dark road, having lost 15 of 20 games in the the middle of the 2017-18 NBA regular season to nearly drop to the bottom of the Western Conference standings.

The Jazz looked to be heading into another season of rebuilding mode, while still trying to recover from the aftereffects of Gordon Hayward leaving to join the Boston Celtics in free agency. Soon after that tough stretch, however, things turned around in a big way for Utah.

After going 5-15 over that stretch, the very next game began a span that has sparked a pretty impressive turnaround and has led the Jazz back into the playoff conversation.

The biggest reason behind that? Utah star center Rudy Gobert.

In the first game, which came against the New York Knicks on Jan. 19 in Salt Lake City, Gobert returned from his second knee injury of the year and provided the Jazz with a much-needed interior presence and defensive anchor that they lacked in the center’s absence.

With its star back in the paint, Utah began a 24-game span — which includes Tuesday’s win over the Detroit Pistons — that has resulted is the Jazz going 20-4, including winning seven straight, to turn the season around.

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During that winning stretch for the Jazz, Gobert has averaged 15.3 points, 11.4 rebounds, 2.3 blocks, 1.5 assists and 0.9 steals in 33.8 minutes per game. He’s also shot a stellar 61.6 percent from the field and, according to Basketball-Reference has held a game score of 15.7 and a plus/minus of +9.5.

In 42 games this season, Gobert is averaging 13.7 points, 10.6 rebounds, 2.3 blocks, 1.4 assists and 0.7 steals in 32.1 minutes per contest. He is shooting 60.9 percent from the field, which is the second-best mark of his career.

The play from the heart of Utah’s team has also resulted in the Jazz moving from the middle of the bottom of the standings in the stacked Western Conference to right in the middle of an entertaining race to the postseason between more than a handful of teams.

Following Tuesday’s game against the Pistons, Utah currently sits tied with the San Antonio Spurs for eighth place in the Western Conference, 1.5 games behind the New Orleans Pelicans and the Minnesota Timberwolves for the No. 5 seed, two games behind the Oklahoma City Thunder and the No. 4 seed and just 3.5 games behind the Portland Trail Blazers and the third seed.

There’s no question that the turnaround that Utah has put together in the second half of the regular season and into the home stretch of the year has been an impressive one, but they certainly don’t want that success to end in the regular season.

Next: 2018 NBA Draft - Early March Mock Draft

A lot of the credit has to go to Gobert in putting together what looks like it will be a winning season, when many thought it would be a rebuilding year. After losing Hayward, Gobert’s timely return is helping give Utah a chance at grabbing a spot in postseason.

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