SALT LAKE CITY – Donovan Mitchell, who sat in the league’s concussion protocol on Friday, tweeted something during the third quarter that sounded awful to the rest of the NBA.
“Uh o Bojan !!!” Mitchell said, with some eye emojis added.
As if the league needs another reason to fear the Jazz.
Utah won its 11th game Friday with a 120-101 blowout victory over Dallas at the Vivint Arena. Ten of the 11 victories were achieved with double figures.
According to Cleaning the Glass, which removes the clutter and heaviness, Utah has the league’s best net rating, second best defense and third best offense; and the Jazz are, in the first place, miles away in the long finish line – a piece that now spans more than half of the season.
According to all statistics, the Jazz are currently the best team in the league, and the eye test confirmed this on Friday.
Utah held a 25-point lead after the end of the first quarter based on eight tries in the period and Dallas only held to three-out-5 shooting. Utah led by as many as 30 points in the game and six players scored double figures. And all this without their leading scorer (Mitchell) or Derrick Favors.
Utah is currently a freight train that is leveling everything in its path. And that train just got more fuel on Friday thanks to Bojan Bogdanovic.
What happens if Utah’s best shooter joins the 3-point boom? Mitchell said it perhaps best: “Uh oh.”
Bogdanovic, who has scored just 27% of three in the last four games, scored 32 points on 7-of-11 shooting behind the arc. He had 17 points alone in the third quarter as Utah (15-4) remained at the top of the league’s standings.
“We had a discussion this morning,” Bogdnaovic said. “They all want me to shoot more, to be aggressive, but sometimes it’s hard when you’re struggling; when you do not see the ball coming through the net.”
Bogdanovic shot just one three-pointer in Utah’s win over Dallas on Wednesday. Head coach Quin Snyder and the rest of the Jazz were unacceptable. Yes, he has struggled at times this year, but he is coming off the best season of his career. And the only way to get back to that level is to keep shooting.
“The way he plays and the way we play fits very well,” Snyder said. “He hasn’t played that long yet. And he just plays a way back to where he was, and sometimes it just takes time.
“The biggest thing I want him to do is just keep attacking, keep shooting, keep competing.”
For Bogdanovic, Friday’s game started in the same way as many others this season: some missed shots. Snyder set up a few plays to engage him, but he could not repent. While the Jazz had a big early lead, Bogdanovic went 1-for-3 from deep.
With Utah’s love affair with the three-ball, Snyder made it clear that no matter how many tries were missed, everyone should keep shooting. This is how Utah rounded out nine straight games with at least 15 tries (one less than the league record) and hit 20 tries in a game seven times this season (more than they had in franchise history this year).
It’s simple: if you’re open, shoot the ball.
While the Mavericks wanted to turn the paint off a bit more after Rudy Gobert dropped 29 points on them on Wednesday (Gobert had another 17 points and 12 rebounds in Friday’s win), which means less pressure on the perimeter, and that meant that Bogdanovic was open. In the third, he did not hesitate and committed all four of his three-point attempts.
With each shot, confidence seemed to grow. His decisions were faster, his release faster – he looked like the Bogdanovic Jazz fans met last season.
“Tonight he was himself, and it makes us a lot better when he’s so aggressive,” said Mike Conley, who had 22 points and nine assists.
After winning 11 games tied at 15.6 points, some teams need to think about how much better the Jazz can actually get?
And all the winning helped Bogdanovic get off to a slower start than expected.
“I would be really crazy if I play like I play now and we lose, but we win. The team is playing great,” he said. “So no one cares about their own stats and or percentage or whatever you’re looking for. So it’s great for me to win, even if I’m struggling now.”
He did not struggle on Friday. It could be ‘uh o’ for the rest of the league.
Ryan Miller