Donovan Mitchell comes up big as Utah Jazz win opener; 3 takeaways
By Dean Hasan
3. Defense looked good, still needs some fine-tuning
As usual, Rudy Gobert was an absolute stud on the defensive end. His primary matchup, Steven Adams, was largely unable to move The Stifle Tower on the low block and he managed just three points on 1-of-8 shooting. Gobert made his presence known to the Thunder, who as a team scored 34 in the paint and shot just 37.5 percent on looks less than five feet from the hoop.
When he was switched out onto Chris Paul and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander on the perimeter, Gobert kept his feet moving and heavily contested their attempts both beyond the arc and inside the paint.
In terms of team defense as a collective, the Utah Jazz were active on defense and they played the passing lanes well in the first half. That being said, there are several areas of improvement for the team. Despite holding the Thunder to just 95 points on the night, Utah will need to tighten up their defense off screens and switches and watch their fouling.
On the night, the Jazz were whistled 31 times and in the third quarter, they put OKC in the bonus with 7:27 remaining in the period. The Thunder shot 31 free throws (granted six of those were shot by Adams, who knocked down just one of them), which isn’t ideal, especially when your team attempts only 20.
The Jazz also missed a few switches which led to some wide-open 3s for OKC. While the Thunder shot a solid 37 percent from deep, they didn’t convert on every open look and against the elite teams of the West, Utah will likely be punished further for their miscommunication. On a positive note, the team does appear to be cognizant of this struggle.
On one play in the second half, Mitchell went over a screen and fouled his man as he couldn’t recover in time. On the broadcast you could see Mitchell chatting with a nodding Gobert, who was acknowledging that he should have moved up to help out.