SALT LAKE CITY — Tony Bradley is generally a man of few words, but the Utah Jazz’s backup center’s message on Friday night after a 129-119 win over the Washington Wizards summed the evening up well.
“Coming into this game, we were on a losing streak. Always good to win. It’s always better for us coming in the locker room after games,” he said. “There’s a different vibe and a different feeling. Everyone’s in a better mood.”
Right at that moment, Donovan Mitchell yelled out to whomever would hear, “Tony for 3!,” referencing the shot from beyond the arc Bradley hit in Friday’s first quarter, the first of his career.
A better mood, indeed, for a Jazz team that has had a long week coming out of the All-Star break. After getting outplayed by the San Antonio Spurs, Houston Rockets, Phoenix Suns and Boston Celtics with some personnel drama in between the Phoenix and Boston games, Utah desperately needed to close out its five-game homestand — its longest of the season — with a win Friday.
It was far from a perfect performance, to be sure, but at least things got trending in the right direction again for a squad that at one point earlier in the season was second in the Western Conference standings but entered Friday just a half-game up on the seventh-place Dallas Mavericks.
“Coming into this game, we were on a losing streak. Always good to win. It’s always better for us coming in the locker room after games. There’s a different vibe and a different feeling. Everyone’s in a better mood.” — Jazz center Tony Bradley
For one, the Jazz cared to play defense more than they had all week after some pretty terrible performances on that end of the floor. Rudy Gobert finished with nine rebounds, four blocks and three steals to lead the way, while hustle plays like Royce O’Neale blocking a shot in the third quarter while he was briefly playing center or Mike Conley diving on the ground for a loose ball gave Utah a boost it had been missing.
“I think we did a way better job than we did the last few weeks,” Gobert said of the defensive effort.
On the other end, yes, the Wizards are the worst defensive team in the NBA, but the Jazz got back to moving the ball and making 3-pointers — necessities for them when teams limit Gobert like Washington focused on doing. Bench players such as Bradley, Jordan Clarkson and Georges Niang also shined after a stretch of struggles.
There’s still improvements to be made moving forward — Utah wasn’t exactly marvelous defensively and turned the ball over too much, to name a few things —but it was good enough to start getting back on track.
“It’s not always going to be perfect,” Mitchell said. “We can’t just come in here and think you’re going to win by whatever amount. For us, just continuing to stay with it. They made a push, they made a few runs, but we didn’t get too down on ourselves and continued to fight.”
Although the Jazz felt a weight being lifted off their shoulders with the win, they’re fully aware that it was just one game and that they need to continue to keep getting better as they get ready for a four-game road trip.
“This is one win,” Mitchell said. “We’ve got a big stretch coming up, and we’ve got to stay locked in. We can’t take these games for granted. We’re kind of behind the 8-ball from All-Star break. This feels good to get this win, but we can’t be satisfied.”
In a similar vein, Gobert was focused more on his team’s overall process getting better than it has been and less about what the final result of Friday’s contest was.
“I think people overreact to losing, winning,” he said. “The most important thing is to keep getting better. Sometimes we win games that we don’t deserve to win, sometimes you lose games that you deserve to win. It’s all about the way you lose and the way you win, and it’s all about where we’re going to be when the playoffs come. We’ve got a big road trip coming up, and we’ve got to keep getting better and find our defense back, and the rest is going to take care of itself.”