The Utah Jazz managed to eke out a win over the Orlando Magic on Friday night.
It took Walker Kessler hitting the two biggest free throws of his young NBA career (after going 1-of-4 from the charity stripe to that point) late in the fourth quarter, and Lauri Markkanen blocking a 3-pointer to ensure the win, but the Jazz got the job done.
They turned the ball over a ridiculous amount — 24 total turnovers, including 11 in the fourth quarter — much to head coach Will Hardy’s chagrin.
“11 in the fourth quarter, which is alarming considering the jerseys we were wearing tonight,” Hardy said. “I feel like we should know which guys are on our team and which guys aren’t when we wear the yellow.”
But despite the turnovers and the poor shooting overall, the Jazz were able to impact the game in other ways that allowed them to come away victorious.
Blocker Kessler
Kessler not only hit important free throws at the end of the game, he also had a career-best seven blocks to go with his nine rebounds and 13 points.
The rookie center has been impressive as a rim protector all season. His footwork, his timing and his ability to block shots with such regularity without fouling, this early in his career is honestly incredible.
So, of the seven blocks on Friday, here are my three favorite.
This first one, right out of the gate, is great because not only does he block the shot by completely relying on his length and just going straight up with two hands, but he defends the Magic’s second attempt and impedes the putback attempt.
This one is amazing because of what happened just before the block. On the other end Kessler had just wrestled away the offensive rebound and then scored. The Magic pushed the ball quickly and while everyone else was trying to play catchup, Kessler raced from basket to basket in time to manage the chase-down block.
Finally, I love this one purely because of the timing of what was happening on the broadcast. The TV team was talking about how he’d already racked up four blocks early in the game and even put a graphic on the screen to talk about how impressive four was. And as if it was all scripted, Kessler blocks another shot.
Lauri Markkanen getting to the line
It was definitely not Markkanen’s best shooting night. He went just 4-of-13 from the field. But even so, he finished the night with a game-high 28 points because he went 17-of-21 from the free-throw line.
“He’s done a great job of understanding that he is a physical beast and that when he gets an angle on people that he needs to be physical on offense,” Hardy said. “He’s just done a good job of using his body, of understanding angles. He’s not shying away from the contact and the way the rules are in the NBA, you get the benefit of the doubt because to play defense, when guys are driving the ball downhill, you really have to be perfect.”
He’s actually been doing this a lot more lately, recognizing when defenses are trying to run him off the 3-point line and taking advantage of mismatches. Markkanen averaged 4.4 free throw attempts in Nov., 6.2 in Dec., and is averaging 11.7 in Jan.
“just being physical going to the rim aggressively,” Markkanen said. “Trying to go dunk everything and you’ll get some some calls.”
Jordan Clarkson’s rebounding
The Jazz are not a great rebounding team, and especially not a great defensive rebounding team. So it’s notable that they won the battle of the boards against the Orlando Magic on Friday, 60-40.
It’s also notable that the Jazz were hugely aided in that effort by a career-high 12 rebounds including 10 defensive boards by Jordan Clarkson.
After the game Clarkson said that he was just in the right spot at the right time for the most part, and he’s right. After watching, a lot of the rebounds he got were uncontested and off misses without anyone from the other team around. But there are some that he fought for and there are a couple of sneaky smart things that Clarkson does when he is intentional on the glass.
The biggest thing is that Clarkson is really quick with his hands and he can poke rebounds out so that the become loose balls and then he’ll run them down.
But the other thing that Clarkson will do is stay close behind one of the players that is being boxed out by either Kessler or Markkanen and use that box out to his advantage by swiping the ball so that the player getting boxed out has no chance at it.
With the way this Jazz team is constructed, the Jazz need all the help they can get on the boards and Clarkson is averaging four rebounds per game, which matches his career-best.