Jazz execute a perfect game plan to take down Raptors

The Utah Jazz have won four straight games for the first time this season.

How have they done it? By executing game plans in a very precise way, even if the game plan has to change drastically.

They did it against the Philadelphia 76ers and the Milwaukee Bucks and the Denver Nuggets — all teams that have wildly varying scouting reports with some of the best players in the league.

Then they beat the Toronto Raptors 145-113 on Friday night by doing it once again. And they did it so well that the starters were able to sit for a large part of the fourth quarter in order to rest for the second game of a back-to-back coming up on Saturday.

Before Friday’s game, Raptors head coach Darko Rajakovic noted how important the transition game is for his team and how much they want to run.

The Raptors scored just 13 fast break points against the Jazz.

There was a lot of talk about how successful R.J. Barrett has been in the six games with the Raptors since being traded from the New York Knicks.

He scored just four points against the Jazz.

In the games since the trade, the Raptors had the fifth-best offense in the NBA.

They shot just 38% from inside the arc against the Jazz.

Need more evidence that the Jazz’s defense was at its best?

“At halftime (the Raptors) had six points in the paint,” Jazz head coach Will Hardy pointed out. “And this is a season low for us in terms of points in the paint conceded at 32, so really proud of the team’s focus and understanding what the priority of the game was.”

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The priorities: Don’t let them get easy buckets in the open court; Contain the ball on initial drives; Use length to protect the rim; Crash the glass.

Kris Dunn, who deserves a lot of credit for the Jazz’s uptick in defensive efficiency as of late, was a huge part of slowing down fast breaks and containing the Raptors’ first actions.

Lauri Markkanen, Walker Kessler and Kelly Olynyk (John Collins got into early foul trouble) were a huge impediment to the Raptors being able to find any kind of rhythm at the rim and ditto that when you think about rebounding.

“We told the team before the game that if we can control the glass we think will win the game,” Hardy said.

The Jazz finished the night with a 56-31 rebounding advantage.

“Just follow the game plan,” Dunn said. “I think as a team and as a coaching staff we all executed…We didn’t want to let them score in the paint and we got the needed stops and got our own runs going.”

The Jazz once again will be facing a wildly different opponent Saturday night when they take on a much larger team in the Los Angeles Lakers, but the Jazz feel like they’re in the perfect groove when it comes to switching it up from one night to the next and they’ve proven that with their longest win streak of the season.