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The best team in the NBA: This is how Utah became a legitimate candidate for the championship
With an unexpected threesome revolution threatening to break all-time records, an unselfish game that draws comparisons to the great San Antonio and a star becoming a superstar, jazz looks like the real thing.
Now, after opening the best season in the club's history, even Shaquille O'Neal is convinced: this is a team for the championship
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Utah Jazz
Donovan Mitchell
NBA
Walla!
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Wednesday, February 10, 2021, 1:30 p.m.
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A dream season.
Utah Celebrates (Photo: AP, Michael Conroy)
It's a big doubt if anyone believed that the first team to reach 20 wins in the 2020/21 season in the NBA would actually be Utah, but that's what happened tonight (Tuesday through Wednesday).
The Jazz continued their wonderful form when they defeated Boston 108: 122 and went up to a 5:20 balance - the opening of the best season in the history of the club.
No less impressive than the end result was the road: Utah once again seemed almost uncontrollable, and since then its pair of consecutive losses to New York and Brooklyn has been a lone loss in 17 games.
"You can't go wrong with these guys," admitted Brad Stevens, who compared the jazz ball movement to that of Tim Duncan's great San Antonio, Mano Ginobili and Tony Parker.
"They are so skilled on offense. A special team, and when you make a mistake - you pay for it."
Jason Taitum agreed: "They play the best basketball in the league. They connect and play really well together."
Jaylen Brown, who finished with 33 points that were not enough, added: "Utah has the best balance in the league, and rightly so. They play with so much freedom and fluency."
Despite the club's DNA as a defensive, tough and slightly gray team at times, this season Utah has established itself as a well-oiled offensive machine, with six games in which it scored 120 points or more and three in which it scored over 130 points (138 against Charlotte, 131 against Milwaukee, 130 Opposite San Antonio).
The Jazz are averaging 114.3 points per game this season - seventh place in the league, compared to 111.3 points they scored last year (18th place).
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This is mainly due to the threesome revolution completed by Kevin Snyder: his players are ranked first this season in accurate threes per game (17, one more from Portland and Toronto sharing second place), in number of shots per game they are in second place (42.1 vs. 42.2 of Portland) and so in percentage (40.3 vs. 41.9 Of the Los Angeles Clippers).
Last season they were admittedly first in percentage off the arc (38), but with far fewer lashes (13.4) or shots (35.2) per game.
Utah Outstanding Scorers of the Season:
Donovan Mitchell - 3.5 3-pointers at 41.6 percent
Jordan Clarkson - 3.1 3-pointers at 38.7 percent
Boyan Bogdanovich - 2.9 3-pointers at 42.1 percent
Mike Conley - 2.8 3-pointers at 41 percent
Joe Ingles - 2.1 3-pointers on 42.4 percent
Royce O'Neill - 1.8 3-pointers on 44.3 percent
Tonight, the team with the best balance in the league once again showed its outstanding firepower this season, throwing 48 times off the arc and scoring 18 times (compared to 13 of 29 from Boston).
Until the meeting with the Celtics, the Jazz had a historic streak of three games in which they threw more than 40 times off the arc and scored 40 percent or more - something that has not been done in the NBA until this season.
If that's not enough, Utah broke the league's all-time three-point record in January - 285 had such, a six-point improvement over Houston's record from December 2016. Earlier this season it also became the first team in history to score 15 threes or more in 11 consecutive games.
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If you continue at this pace Utah will break the all-time Houston record of the 2018/19 season, then scoring 16.1 threes per game.
The record percentage outside the arc for one season is also within reach (Charlotte of 1996/97 - 42.7 percent).
"That's the power of this team," Snyder said.
"We have a lot of players who are able to score. That's something we emphasized to the players on their first day here - we want you to throw threes."
After the win over Boston he added: "Teams that shape themselves around the players and coaches - it's satisfying. There's a team here that tries to play together in a certain way and is committed to that."
But this is not just about the amount of shots but also their quality.
According to the league's official website, 25 percent of Utah's threes are free (with the nearest defender at least 1.8 yards away), evidence of the ball moving and the space in Snyder's play.
Only Oklahoma City (26.5 percent) and Toronto (25.2) are ranked higher in this respect, so it's not surprising that four of the six players who throw the most free throws this season come from the Jazz: Royce O'Neill (88), Mitchell (84), Bogdanovich ( 84) and Conley (82).
Only Cameron Johnson (100) and Buddy the Boy (101) have taken more of these this season.
13.3 percent of the total threes that Utah takes this season come from the corners - the shots with the highest chances of getting in, according to advanced statistics - and in this sense she is also first in the league.
Bogdanovich leads the league with both corner kicks and corner kicks.
"We're such a cohesive bunch," Conley said last week, "there's a very unselfish group here that it's been a matter of time until things connect. And where we connect we look amazing."
Despite all this team spirit, the offense has one player above them all - Donovan Mitchell, who started the season with some lameness but is improving week by week and recording career highs in points (24), off-arc percentages (41.9) and assists (5.1) per game.
"The biggest thing that has changed for him is the decision making," Rudy Gover said of the star.
"He understands very well the pace of the game and how to find teammates. He has improved every year, but this year the jump is significant. And when that happens, we are on a completely different level."
Suddenly, Gober’s prophecy after last year’s painful relegation from the playoffs doesn’t seem so unfounded.
"We failed, but I have no doubt we will win the championship," he said.
"Right now it hurts, but I promise you we will come back stronger and do everything we can to be a stronger team."
This week he recalled these things and added: "I feel we are back this season with a clear goal. We have a monkey on our backs."
Even Shaquille O'Neal, who sounded pessimistic and stung Donovan Mitchell about two weeks ago, was convinced and when asked this morning if Utah can go all the way, he replied: "Yeah, they play really well, win a great game, everyone touches the ball, they have a chance to win. Can they do? "Days will tell. I hold their fingers, Donovan Mitchell is a star but I want him to become a superstar, I want him to reach the levels of the players I have collaborated with in the past. The question is what will happen when the threes do not come in."
Dwayne Wade added this morning in a TNT panel: "They are the best team in the league in terms of balance. I really like what was built there, they have Mitchell, Ingles, Conley, Bogdanovich, players who can make decisions. It is a very unselfish team, you can see they are We love each other and there is not much ego there. "
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