SALT LAKE CITY – Joe Ingles gave an opening speech as he sat down for his media sessions after the game following the Utah Jazz’s 128-112 victory over Sacramento at Vivint Arena on Saturday.
“There will be one question … and I’m just letting you know that not everyone needs to ask now, because I do not answer,” Ingles said.
Someone said something to Ingles during the course of the match. Who said it and what exactly was said? These answers may forever be a mystery to those outside the Jazz locker room, but the incident was the driving force in Utah’s victory Saturday.
The Jazz (40-13) came out slowly – really slowly. They first scored their first points more than three minutes into the game and only picked up their first basket until four and a half minutes had elapsed. After playing three games in four nights against the Western Conference playoffs, the Jazz seemed to have little interest in playing with full effort against the moving Kings (22-31).
“When a team kicks you 12-1 in the mouth, I mean you have to get something to get your juices going,” said Georges Niang, with 12 points. “They feel confident, and we wanted to take away their confidence, so sometimes, within the heat of the game, you just come back and forth and that’s just something that led to it.”
So if the Kings wanted to win the winning streak of Utah, which now stands at 24, they would probably have to keep their mouths shut.
They did not.
“I do not want to put Joe on the spot, but someone said something to Joe,” Donovan Mitchell said. ‘And Joe gave me an answer I had not heard for a while, and it just lit me up. When Joe gets angry, I get angry. ‘
This is how the Kings finally had to get an evening of 42 points from Mitchell, and a six-point game with 20 points from Ingles. A Utah team that seemed uninterested in going in suddenly had a little spark.
“It’s more of a kind of funny comedy to me, but it obviously lightens something in me that makes the game fun,” Ingles said.
Ingles helped save the Jazz from the start. His four assistants in the first quarter were more than half of the team’s total. He pushed the ball into transition and found open guys, and he was really the only Jazz player who was effective in attacking the Kings’ defense.
“He created for other people,” Jazz coach Quin Snyder said. “And many times when you do, it’s you who ends up with the shot.”
He shot a lot. Ingles were 5-out of 10 on three points on Saturday – a percentage that almost matches his season average. Ingles is shooting a hair of less than 50% this season this season – more volume is a good thing for the Jazz; it was a bad thing for the Kings.
As the saying goes, you do not want to sting the bear – especially not if that bear also has some bear friends in the area.
Mitchell had 12 points on 3-of-14 shooting at halftime; he had 30 points on 9-of-17 shots after the break – a turnaround he attributed to the comments.
“That’s really what made the tide turn for me personally,” Mitchell said of the mysterious remark. “As for the team, I think the biggest thing was that we just found a way to win. It was ugly. I did not shoot the ball well, we made some mistakes defensively, a lot of mistakes. defensive; offensive, we were pretty stagnant. But the team we want to be wins games like that. “
Mitchell was not alone in the second half to be more effective. After Kings center Richaun Holmes had the first half of 21 points, Rudy Gobert kept him down to just 4 points in the final two quarters.
“Let’s not get it wrong, Rudy is the defensive player of the year and he’s going to get people’s best game every night,” Niang said. “So for him (Holmes) to have 21 points on the half and what did he end up with? 25? Yes, 4 points, it’s like: OK, you woke up a monster.”
The much more focused game resulted in 17-1 Jazz runs in the third and 24-7 in the fourth. It was good enough to erase the ugly moments.
Although Ingles was not prepared to elaborate on the moment that sparked the Jazz victory, it will be entered into the memory bank of dozens, if not hundreds, of similar encounters.
“It’s actually funny. I’ve said it before, like I’ve never thought of talking to anyone in a game,” Ingles said in general. “Of course, I get into more conversations with people than with anyone else on our team.”
On Saturday, it was the Ingles and Sacramento guard De’Aaron Fox who complained a lot. While Ingles did what he regularly does, he reacted to opponents while smiling about it. Fox’s frustration increased over the fact that he turned the Kings’ lead into a 16-point loss. Fox went so far as to call the servant after the game ‘god awful’. This led to him confronting the officials when the last horn blew. Mitchell tries to save his old friend from a fine, and tries to intervene.
“He’s been a friend of mine since high school and it’s not necessary to lose money over such a situation – the game is over, the competition is over,” Mitchell said.
A game that, appropriately enough, ended with the chatter of players.