· The Jazz haven’t look better all year than the first half of this game. They were playing with force. They were playing with great tempo offensively. Instead of moving into sets they were running into the set and their actions. The result was they had an advantage on almost every possession. Once they had the advantage they moved the ball and got open three after open three. The offense was running how it is supposed to. It never got stagnant. There weren’t ball fakes and pass fakes. Their weren’t moments of dribble dribble and look around. Everything was moving and popping.
· The defense was with the offense. After some early mistakes they were shifting and bumping their guy out and executing the plan as they desired. The Spurs were without Victor Wembayama, Devin Vassell and Jeremy Shohan so they were limited in what they could run and the Jazz were able to zero in on what they were seeing and particularly in the first quarter were very good.
· The second quarter was an offensive show with the Jazz winning the quarter 35-34.
· The bummer about the 4th quarter collapse from the Jazz is the goal is to have the dark moments last shorter periods of time and in the third quarter they did a great job of doing that. The Jazz lead by 16 at the half and the Spurs almost immediately got it down to 9. Then the game stayed between 9 to 12 for a long time and it felt like the Jazz had done exactly what they have been working on to shorten the dark moments.
· The NBA is incredible. The scouting reports on the Jazz rookies took about 24 hours to get across. The game Kyle Filipowski played last time we were in San Antonio when he was driving, spinning and making plays from the elbow with his passing is gone via scouting reports. He hasn’t had a spin since and every move they are making him make is uncomfortable.
· Filipowski sprained his ankle and that left the Jazz very shorthanded at center without Walker Kessler and Kyle.
· Isaiah Collier is doing lots of really good things, but scoring is a big issue right now. His outside shot is not ready for action so he uses his lightening speed to drive to the basket but the length of the NBA is suffocating his shooting window and he has more shots blocked then made.
· The Jazz closed the game with Collier, Keyonte George, Bryce Sensabaugh, John Collins and Lauri Markkanen
· Chris Paul dominated the game late. He was in complete control.
· The Jazz missed all their three point shots in the 3rd quarter and went 2 of 12 in the 4th quarter from three for 2 of 17 in the second half
· The Rookies were a combined 2 for 16
· Keyonte George was 6 of 18. He really needs to find out how to have less games below 40% shooting. His shot chart has gotten much better he just needs to knock some down. In 9 of 14 games, this Keyonte has shot 36% or worse. He only got one shot at the rim tonight. 25% of his shots are layups or dunks this year up from 19% last year which is trending in the right direction. It is too hard to just live by a jump shot. Tonight he had 4 shots in the paint and just 1 at the rim. He went 2 for 4 in the paint.
· Jazz did a better job taking care of the ball and a better job of keepong their opponent out of transition.
