3 observations from Warriors’ comeback victory over the Jazz
The Golden State Warriors (48-29) hosted the Utah Jazz (46-31) on Saturday night. Golden State intended to snap a 4-game losing streak. Utah hoped to build on a victory over the Lakers on Thursday night. The Warriors, who were 0-10 on the season when trailing by 20 or more points in a game, rallied from a 21-point deficit to claim a victory over the Jazz, 111-107.
Jordan Poole and Klay Thompson combined for 67 points on 50 field goal attempts for the Dubs.
Donovan Mitchell and Mike Conley combined for 52 points on 37 field goal attempts and 11 assists for the Jazz.
Here are 3 observations from the Warriors’ win.
A sloppy first half in The Bay
Golden State dug its own hole on the offensive side of the ball in the first half. The Warriors committed 11 turnovers before intermission, while the Jazz won the possession battle with just 5 turnovers in the same span.
As such, Utah scored 17 points off turnovers, while Golden State registered just 3 in the first 24 minutes. Points off turnovers is a bit of a misleading statistic because it’s often equated to “fastbreak points”. But, it accounts for both dead-ball and live-ball turnovers.
So, it wasn’t necessarily about transition to play. Rather, Golden State simply did not manufacture value from their possessions. On the other hand, Utah did.
Sometimes an extension of the points off turnovers disparity, Utah won the battle in the paint, outscoring Golden State 26-14 in that regard before halftime.
Klay Thompson, onions
Thompson had one of his classic heat-ups in the fourth quarter to get the Jazz sweating. He hit 4 triples in a span of 2 minutes and 41 seconds.
The first one chipped Utah’s lead from 16 points to 13 points with 6 minutes and 58 seconds remaining. The fourth trimmed the Jazz’s lead to 1 point with 4 minutes and 17 seconds left.
The speed with which Thompson cooks dramatically changes games whenever he goes on one of his heaters. Comfortable with firing with nearly non-existent touch time, all Thompson needs is a sprint and a screen to get 9 points on the board in the blink of an eye.
If your communication on those screens is even slightly amiss, he’ll burn you. My best recommendation for the opposition is to top-lock the sniper and deny the screen, and switch on those off-ball screens if he is able to peel off them. He might end up with a mismatch, but the Warriors operate at an optimal level when Klay is scoring off relocation instead of isolation.
In honor of the Final Four, Thompson was onions on Saturday.
The Jazz are cooked
On Tuesday, Utah blew a 25-point lead in a loss to the Clippers in Los Angeles in what was a real-life flashback to their dreadful defeat at the hands of the Clippers in last season’s Western Conference Semifinals.
After a get-right victory over the Lakers to snap a 5-game losing streak on Thursday, the Jazz blew another 20-plus-point lead in defeat on Saturday.
Given all the rumors about the turmoil in Utah, the Jazz may just be cooked.
The Warriors (49-29) will visit the Sacramento Kings (29-49) on Sunday. Tip-off is set for 9 PM, Eastern time. You can catch the action on NBC Sports Bay Area.
