Entering tonight’s matchup with Golden State, the Utah Jazz have won seven of their last eight games. Gordon Hayward has obviously been phenomenal, averaging 27.0 points per game during that stretch, but another player has been equally (if not more) influential to Utah’s recent success.
That would be Rudy Gobert.
Rudy’s been a huge part of why the Jazz—despite numerous injuries to key players, including Hayward—have jumped out to a 14-9 record to start the season.
Utah’s 24-year-old center is averaging career highs in points, rebounds, blocks, minutes, and both FG% and FT% this season.
The area that has seen the most drastic improvement is his free-throw shooting. After shooting 49.2 percent as a rookie and 56.9 percent last year in his first season as a full-time starter, Rudy’s converting an impressive 66.9 percent of his free throws this season.
"With respect to the free-throw shooting, I just think [Rudy’s] got a lot of pride,” Jazz head coach Quin Snyder said after his team beat the Suns on Tuesday. “It's just a question of two things—hard work in practice, and experience. It started for Rudy with lots and lots of hard work, just reps and reps and reps.”
All the work has certainly paid off, and the game against Phoenix was Rudy’s coming-out party from the line—he went 10-for-11, including two that hit nothing but net in the last minute of the game (there was some sort of fancy, reverse, two-handed dunk after that … but let’s get back to the free throws).
"Early on, there would still be moments when he'd miss, or have a bad miss, and then eventually you're on the line enough that your nervous system starts to slow down,” Snyder continued. “So you gain all the confidence from the practice, and then you gain even more confidence from the experience."
And, as Jazz fans know, Rudy is nothing if not confident.
Over the past eight games, he averaged 13.8 points, 12.9 rebounds and 3.4 blocks, and he shot 68.0 percent (34-for-50) from the field and 71.2 percent (42-for-49) from the free-throw line. He also logged six double-doubles and committed only 2.8 fouls per game, which allowed him to stay on the court more often (34.6 minutes per game, nearly three minutes more than his season average).
Tonight, Rudy will try to keep things rolling as he leads the Jazz against their toughest opponent so far this season.
Golden State sports an NBA-best record of 19-3 behind the quartet of Stephen Curry (2015 and 2016 NBA MVP), Kevin Durant (2014 NBA MVP), Klay Thompson (60 points in three quarters against Indiana on Monday) and Draymond Green (2016 All-NBA Second Team).
The Warriors are coming off a win over the Clippers in Los Angeles last night.
Tipoff is set for 7 p.m., and you can watch the game on ROOT SPORTS (XFINITY 693, DirecTV 683-1, DISH 445, Hopper 412-33).
The Jazz will be without four of their five regular starters tonight: Gordon Hayward (finger), George Hill (toe), Rodney Hood (hamstring) and Derrick Favors (knee) will miss the game. Alec Burks (ankle) has not played yet this season and remains out.