Last week: Won at Golden State 122-108, beat Brooklyn 119-114, lost at Memphis 107-106
This week: Monday vs. Minnesota, Wednesday at Minnesota, Friday vs. Golden State, Saturday vs. New Orleans
The Utah Jazz were a Ja Morant game-winner away from a perfect 3-0 week, but the Grizzlies on Friday night stopped Utah’s four-game winning streak.
One very noticeable change for the Jazz last week was the level of involvement of Rudy Gobert at the offensive end. Gobert didn’t attempt more than eight shots in a game through the first nine games of the season, culminating with just two in 37 minutes in their win over Milwaukee on Nov. 8.
Last week, Gobert’s shot counts were in double-digits each game, as he averaged 22.0 points, 15.3 rebounds, 3.0 blocks and 1.0 steals in 36.2 minutes per game, shooting 84.8 percent overall (that’s not a typo, dude was 28-for-33).
Perhaps coach Quin Snyder was listening when Gobert told the Salt Lake Tribune that the team’s offensive woes might ease if they’d start getting him the ball on the low block. The Jazz definitely took the shackles off Gobert over the last three games.
Last week: Beat Dallas 116-106, beat Washington 140-133, won at Golden State 105-100, lost at Sacramento 100-99
This week: Monday at Phoenix, Wednesday at Clippers, Friday at Denver
The Boston Celtics had their 10-game winning streak — the longest run in the NBA thus far this season — snapped on Sunday in a one-point loss at Sacramento. Marcus Smart got a good look at a floater just inside the foul line as time expired, but his shot hit the rim, backboard and then hung on the rim before falling off to give the Kings the victory.
To be fair, the Celtics were ramping up to this loss, giving up a season-high 133 points to the lowly Wizards at home before getting pushed by the woeful Warriors to open their current five-game Western stretch.
Kemba Walker has been sort of the microcosm for the Celtics, scoring 29 points on 9-of-16 shooting against Dallas, then putting in 25 on 8-of-17 shooting against the Wizards. Against the Warriors, Walker was 6-for-19 with 20 points and on Sunday, he made only 5-of-12 and finished with 15 points.
For the week, he averaged 22.3 points, 6.0 assists and 4.0 rebounds in 33.7 minutes per game, shooting 43.1 percent overall and making 17-of-41 (41.5 percent) from 3-point range.