By David Locke, utahjazz.com
*** Bryce Cotton, Rodney Hood, Joe Ingles, Jeremy Evans and Trevor Booker – why of course. That is the 5 man line-up that carried the Jazz through the key run of the game and to a win. Dante Exum, Rudy Gobert and Elijah Millsap took part in the fun as well. Gordon Hayward and Derrick Favors did not.
*** Favors checked out 5:16 into the 3rd quarter and Hayward checkout 6:10 into the 3rd quarter and neither returned to the game. Both of these guys have been carrying this team and Quin has asked so much out of them in practice and shootarounds all season. They are on empty and Quin recognized it. Great call by the coach at this point of the season to realize what you have and what you don’t and let it ride. Not worth winning the game with those pieces overly worn out and instead he let the other guys get amazing experience.
*** I am going to be Debbie Downer for a quick second. The group the Jazz played in the 4th quarter for Sacramento was not good. Without going player by player none of them other than Cousins is an NBA starter and Cousins is a miracle.
*** With that said Rodney Hood was terrific. I wrote about this in last empty the noggin. He plays an NBA game. He is in control. He said after the game that he has worked with Quin a tremendous amount and Quin has really talked to him about how to play in around the paint. Quin is big about playing with balance (with is strength) and skill (handle and vision) in and around the paint as the ball handler. It allows them to react to different defenses and make plays. Hood and Hayward have the strength to do it. At time Gordon lacks the handle. Rodney is not having that issue.
*** Interesting how much Rodney mentioned Gordon’s role in his development in our post game interview with Gordon pushing him to be more aggressive.
*** Aggressive he was with a career high 25 points and 13 in the 4th quarter including 9 straight after the game got to 83-82 with 6:11 left. Hood then hit the technical free throw and followed with 3 and then a 14 foot pull up jumper, then a 9 foot runner and the Jazz were up 92-84 with 4:24 left. It was big time.
*** Another 2 for 4 three point shooting night for Joe Ingles. If he can play 15 to 18 a night he might have a nice roll as the 4th wing to Hayward, Hood and Burks.
*** Jazz were never able to strangle the Kings defensively like they have other teams since the all-star break. The Jazz defense tonight was forcing turnovers which is different than what they usually do. They forced 20 turnovers.
*** A rough estimate had the game at nearly 100 possessions so the Jazz allowing 95 pts still keeps the defensive rating at near 95.0 which is amazing. When you force 20% of the opponents possessions into turnovers and only allow 5 three pointers allowing 48% shooting is not as bad as it looks.
*** The Jazz fouled like crazy tonight. Against a good team they would have cost themselves the game with 4 silly fouls in the 2nd quarter that put them in the penalty at the 8:00 minute mark. The Kings didn’t take advantage as much as they should have.
*** Bryce Cotton played a nice game tonight. He is crazy fast. He played with pace. Aaron Brooks is the model for Bryce Cotton, but Brooks a bit stronger and Brooks is super tough. Don’t know if Cotton can match him on those two accounts. He played a nice game. 4 rebounds in 12:30 shows some toughness.
*** Jeremy Evans with a productive 8 minutes – 10 points 2 rebounds.
*** I don’t know how George Karl deals with this. I tell you what if I was a two time cancer survivor and had the resume George has I wouldn’t bother dealing with DeMarcus. I wouldn’t lose 1 minute of sleep over his antics or let him have a negative impact on my life. Not sure how he does that, but I hope he is able to because DeMarcus is a sad story. God gave him a gift and he is truly miserable with the gift he was given. It is really too bad but he is going to torpedo the Kings franchise.
*** Fun night. The big boys got to sit and watch and 3 rookies, a seldom used player, a bunch of guys from the D-League and a big monster named Rudy carried the Jazz to a win. #35 – 10 more than a year ago.