SAN FRANCISCO — There’s no use in trying to dress this one up. The Utah Jazz are good and the Golden State Warriors are bad.
It was made clear very early in the Jazz’s 129-96 victory over the Warriors at Chase Center on Wednesday night.
Here’s the thing, there was a time in the not-so-distant past when the Jazz might have played down to the competition and could have even suffered a loss to a basement-dwelling team like the Warriors.
“That’s really the one thing I feel like we got better at. We start the game with a better urgency and focus no matter who we play. That’s what the great teams do.” — Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert
In fact, the Jazz’s last two wins against the Warriors, before Wednesday’s game, were single-digit victories. Jazz coach Quin Snyder pointed to the way that the team has really made it a priority to improve as a collective group as the season has wore on.
“Regardless of whatever competition we’ve (faced) this team has worked, they’ve worked hard,” he said. “There have been some weaknesses that are gradually becoming strengths. There’s always more to do, but I think our focus has been on us and playing the right way.”
This time against the Warriors, Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert wasted no time asserting themselves as the best players on the court, combining for 45 points and helping the team build enough of a lead that Gobert, Joe Ingles and Bojan Bogdanovic didn’t have to play in the fourth quarter and Mitchell checked out after playing the first two minutes of the final period.
“They are clicking and they are dominating right now, and they dominated us on both ends right from the beginning,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. “Though we got demoralized in the first half — that was probably the biggest disappointment.”
As the Jazz finish out the soft part of their 2019-20 schedule there have been some questions circulating. Are they really this good? Has the easy schedule fooled us into believing that the Jazz are truly one of the better teams in the league? Can the alleged progress of the Jazz be trusted?
There is an argument to be made for a blowout win like the one against the Warriors proving that progress is real. The Jazz went into Golden State’s house and refused to even let the hodge-podge version of the Warriors think they could keep pace with them.
It was a foot-on-the-throat, take-care-of-things-early and rest-our-starters kind of game.
“That’s really the one thing I feel like we got better at,” Gobert said. “We start the game with a better urgency and focus no matter who we play. That’s what the great teams do.”
We could get into how ill-advised it was for the Warriors to double-team Jordan Clarkson while Bojan Bogdanovic and Georges Niang were on the floor, or how Alec Burks should know better than to try and score on Gobert, but really no matter what the Warriors would have tried, they just don’t have the talent to take on the Jazz.
That’s what happens when you go from having an MVP, Finals MVP, and one of best shooting guards in the league, to not having them. The departure of Kevin Durant and injuries to both Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson have left the Warriors playing a waiting game until their stars return.
“Nobody is going to feel sorry for us,” Kerr said. “Especially after the last five years.”
He’s right, and nobody should feel sorry, or even be concerned with the struggles they are facing. As Ingles pointed out before the game on Wednesday, those are all things that the Warriors have to worry about. The Jazz only have to worry about beating whatever team is in front of them.
The difference starting next week is that the teams in front of the Jazz are no longer going to be the NBA’s worst. The Jazz are going to regularly be playing playoff-bound teams, starting with the Luka Doncic-led Dallas Mavericks at Vivint Arena on Saturday.
“We’ve got a tough stretch, but I think it’s just a challenge for us,” Mitchell said. “It’s a matter of can we do this on a consistent basis? You know, that’s the big question.”
It is indeed.