Instant analysis: Jazz win easy over Cavaliers, giving starters some rest in the fourth

The Utah Jazz routed the Cleveland Cavaliers 114-75 on Monday night at Vivint Arena, improving to 35-11 on the season.

High Notes

• Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert and Mike Conley combined for 55 points and the Jazz had a ton of contributions from everyone else, but the biggest contribution was from the defense which held the Cavaliers to just 75 points.
• It should probably be noted once again that Mitchell’s stepback 3s at the end of a shotclock are becoming very dangerous, and also Gobert is a blocking phenom.
• Bojan Bogdanovic again matched a season low in scoring with just three points but he finished with five assists and three rebounds and showed off a lot of impressive passing and a lot of patience both on the outside and from the post. Also, he’s looked a lot better on the defensive end over the last few games. As he’s working his way out of his shooting slump it’s good to see him progressing in other areas.
• Georges Niang is 12-of-20 from 3-point land over the last four games including Monday night. That’s 60%, which is really good. Also Joe Ingles is shooting over 56% since the All-Star break so while there are a couple players (Bogdanovic and Jordan Clarkson) that are having a rough patch, the Jazz definitely have players that can make up for that which speaks to their depth and talent.
• By the time the Jazz had a 20-point lead, Mitchell was the only player to break the double-digit scoring mark with 10-points. The scoring was so evenly spread out across the roster that every player in the Jazz’s main nine-man rotation was on the board.
• The Jazz had such a commanding lead that all of the starters were out of the game with over nine minutes left in the game and all of the regular rotation players were off the court with just over six minutes to play. That’s a nice amount of rest for the guys that run the most.

“Coach Quin just pushing us every time out, pushing us at every halftime of games like this to continue to try to be perfect to try to be great. In order to do that, you have to be consistent, and we’ve kind of taken that and run with it. Tonight we we’re able to accomplish that for four quarters. We’ve had games when we’ve had leads. and let it slip away so I’m proud of our guys to be able to take what coach has said and apply it to the games.” —Mike Conley

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Low Notes

• Cleveland 3-point shooting, Cleveland shooting from everywhere else, Cleveland defense, Cleveland decision making. You get the point right?
• There was a small stretch in the second half when the Jazz were allowing a few too many back-door cuts and Quin Snyder called a timeout and that seemed to solve the problem. Those are bad moments when they happen but good that it happens in a blowout and so the Jazz can look at the film and make sure it doesn’t happen against a better team.

“There was a stretch where it was Mike got back-cut, Royce did and then I did, three mental errors. I think that’s really where our mind has to stay locked in on that point. We can’t let it happen, and we fixed it we cleaned it up. Don’t get me wrong, we had a plenty of really good defensive possessions, but those the little ones in there, they’re going to happen, but we can control those and put an emphasis on it, that way it’s still in the forefront of our brains.” —Donovan Mitchell

• Guards dribbling into Gobert and the Jazz center completely owning them is definitely a high note for the Jazz but it’s an even lower note for the ones who choose to take that path. Eventually Colin Sexton figured out that he would have to stop driving against the 7’1 Gobert but it wasn’t before he’d completely denied Sexton, Darius Garland, Dean Wade, Damyean Dotson and well, most of the Cavaliers roster. Gotta pay attention to the scouting report guys.

“The gravity that Rudy has as a defender with keeping guys out of the paint is like one I’ve never seen...That’s the reason why he’s a two time Defensive Player of the Year and with everything that’s being said, he shouldn’t be a three times Defensive Player of the Year. Just put that out there. I don’t think anybody affects the game more defensively, and that’s just a fact.” —Georges Niang

Flat Notes

• Isaiah Hartenstein lasted 38 seconds before he’d already committed two fouls and been pulled from the game. If that wasn’t a sign of how the game was going to go, I don’t know what was.