Donovan Mitchell comes up big as Utah Jazz win opener; 3 takeaways
By Dean Hasan
2. Although 3s weren’t falling, new-look offense fluid
The Utah Jazz shot poorly from deep, converting on just six of their 24 attempts from range. This wasn’t due to their looks being highly contested. The Jazz ran off-ball screen plays all night to get their shooters open, resulting in plenty of wide-open attempts from downtown; these attempts simply missed their mark.
Bojan Bogdanovic, who shot 42.5 percent from 3 last year, made just one of his five attempts and Mike Conley, a career 37.4 percent 3-point shooter was zero for six. Additionally, sniper Joe Ingles converted on just one of his four looks from range.
light. more jazz. Looking into the crystal ball
While their outside shooting was lacking, guys were cutting and driving to get high percentage looks inside. As a team, recorded 58 of their 100 points in the paint, and they converted on 64.9 percent of their shots within five feet of the basket. Emmanuel Mudiay shined from the bench with his driving and dishing, pouring in 12 points with five dimes in 23 minutes of play.
While Conley had one of the worst shooting night of his career with a 1-of-16 performance from the field, he did regularly get into the paint with ease. He had several looks within five feet, but his floaters routinely landed short, clanking off the front of the rim.
"I wanted to go to the free throw line and knock down a couple and hear the crowd still standing on their feet and cheering for us. That was big. I’m a confidence guy. I’m still confident. I’m looking forward to the next one.” pic.twitter.com/ZQ3duGD0RH
— Utah Jazz (@utahjazz) October 24, 2019
As he gets back into his regular season form, expect the veteran to convert on these attempts with regularity. Conley knew he was off and he was able to smile about as he sank two free throws to ice the game.