SALT LAKE CITY — With Utah Jazz starting center Derrick Favors not suiting up Monday night due to “flu-like symptoms,’’ backup center Rudy Gobert received increased minutes and made the most of them, helping the Jazz in a second-half rally against Denver that came up just short.
Gobert’s numbers weren’t that great — nine points, seven rebounds and one blocked shot — but his presence in the middle made a big difference in keeping the Nuggets out of the paint, as they had to think twice about putting up shots against the man with the 7-foot-9 wingspan.
The second-year pro from France played a season-high 24 minutes, but significantly was on the floor for 18 minutes of the second half when the Jazz stormed back from a 22-point first-half deficit to tie the game before losing by two.
They were likely the most meaningful minutes of his young NBA career. Utah coach Quin Snyder showed his confidence in the big man by playing him for the final three minutes of the fourth quarter after taking him out midway through the period.
“We started to come back and he was a part of that,’’ Snyder said. “When he uses his length to do what he did, he’s really effective. He cleans up a lot of stuff and lets our guys, Trey (Burke) in particular, be more aggressive and more confident on the ball. It was really good to see him take advantage of it.’’
Snyder said he showed Gobert a clip during halftime where he didn’t rotate like he should have and that he played much better in the second half.
“It was great. The coach gave me confidence in the second half and everybody stepped up defensively,’’ Gobert said. “It was frustrating in the first half, we struggled defensively. I wanted to make sure they got nothing in the paint and not give them anything easy. I was just trying to win.’’
There were moments when Gobert also showed his inexperience, like the time in the fourth quarter with the Jazz down by four when he failed to block out Kenneth Faried, who came flying in to grab a missed shot by Ty Lawson. Faried quickly passed the ball out to Arron Afflalo, who sank a 3-pointer. So instead of having the ball down four, the Jazz suddenly trailed by seven points.
Snyder said the team has been working on defense and talking about trust and communication. Although Gobert seemed to make a big difference for the Jazz defensively, Snyder said he wasn’t ready to have one game define how he distributes minutes in the future.
The Jazz coach pointed out that Gobert played a lot more because Favors was out of the lineup Monday night. However, he did say Gobert has the opportunity to see increased minutes after averaging 15.6 minutes coming into the game.
“The better he plays, the more likely he is to play more minutes,’’ Snyder said.
Aside from Gobert, the rest of the Jazz bench struggled again, scoring just four points with three rebounds.