The Utah Jazz reached the halfway point of their regular season on Monday night, losing to the lowly Detroit Pistons.
At this point, the Jazz hold a record of 28-13, which is good for third in the NBA’s Western Conference and puts them on pace for a 56-win regular season.
After finishing the 2020-21 regular season with the West’s best record, Utah is three games back of the Golden State Warriors and Phoenix Suns, who are tied for first at 30-9. The Jazz are a half game up on the Memphis Grizzlies, and then there is a big gap, as Memphis leads the Dallas Mavericks by five games.
But how have the Jazz gotten to this point? Stats and numbers don’t tell the entire story, but they do serve to illustrate general trends, particularly over a 41-game sample size.
Here are some of the notable stats that have helped shape Utah’s season so far.
Offense
- The Jazz have been incredible offensively. They are first in the league in points per game at 115.7, 0.5 points ahead of the Charlotte Hornets (third-place Phoenix and Memphis are tied at 112.1). Advanced stats are even more striking, as Utah has an offensive rating of 116.7 (that many points per 100 possessions), which is well above Charlotte and the Atlanta Hawks, who are tied for second at 112.6.
- The Jazz have had that success thanks to excellent efficiency. Utah is first in the league in field goal percentage (47.8), 3-pointers made per game (exactly 15) and free throws made per game (17.9).
- Individually, Donovan Mitchell is ninth in the league in scoring at 25.9 points per game.
- Rudy Gobert leads the league in field goal percentage, having connected on 70.6% of his attempts.
- Mitchell is third in 3-point attempts per game (9.4) and fourth in 3-point makes per game (3.3).
- Gobert is seventh in free throws attempted per game (6.7).
Defense
- The Jazz have not had quite the same success defensively. Once the best defensive team in the NBA but a group that struggled offensively, Utah’s front office has made moves in recent years to tip the scales in the other direction. This season so far, the Jazz are 13th out of 30 teams in points given up per game (107.5) and 12th in defensive rating (108.5 points given up per 100 possessions).
- Utah is 22nd in opponent field goals made per game, 26th in field goals attempted per game and 12th in field goal percentage defense.
- The Jazz are ninth in opponent 3-pointers made per game, 12th in 3-pointers attempted per game and eighth in opponent 3-point percentage.
- Utah is fifth in opponent free throw attempts per game.
- The Jazz are first in defensive rebounds per game (31.8) and second in total rebounds per game (41.8).
- Utah is fourth in blocks per game (4.2) and 15th in steals per game (7.6).
- Perhaps it will come as no surprise that 3-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year Rudy Gobert is among the league leaders in a couple of defensive categories. He is first in rebounds per game (15.1) and second in blocks per game at 2.3 (Indiana’s Myles Turner is first at 2.9).