Analysis: Kris Dunn makes a big impact in Utah Jazz’s win over Spurs
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The Utah Jazz overcame a rough start — the team trailed by 14 at one point — to defeat the San Antonio Spurs 118-102 on Saturday as the team gets back into the swing of things following the All-Star break.
Lauri Markkanen led the Jazz with 27 points and Utah outscored the Spurs 63-37 in the second half.
Kris Dunn’s impact
Fighting for a spot on the team to end the year, Kris Dunn — the No. 5 pick in the 2016 draft — is making the most of his opportunity.
Dunn signed a 10-day contract with the Jazz this week and had to adapt to coach Will Hardy’s system and playbook — and the playstyle and tendencies of his new teammates — in a period of days.
He looked like he’d been with the Jazz the whole season on Saturday night, posting a statline of 15 points, eight assists and seven rebounds while helping captain Utah’s second unit.
“Kris played with a ton of confidence tonight. 13 field goal attempts and I thought they were all good ones. He did a great job bringing the ball up the floor did a good job attacking off the dribble,” Jazz coach WIll Hardy said.
Lauri Markkanen — who scored 27 points, with 14 coming in the fourth quarter — was the best player on the court Saturday for the Jazz, but Dunn was a close second.
He’s been known as a defensive player throughout his career, and he showed it against the Spurs, making several impactful defensive plays in the pivotal third quarter, including blocking Malaki Branham’s 3-pointer near the end of the period.
“I played football, I was a free safety high school, and my instincts come from that. I like to play physical. Understanding the game, understanding the personnel, and you gotta have a good defense around you and that allows you to be able to kind of choose your points of when to be aggressive and try to go for steals,” Dunn said.
“The block, that was just an instinct. I just read his body and I knew he was going to go up. So it’s a lot of it is instincts, a lot of it is understanding the game.”
It’s been helpful for Dunn to have a familiar face in Markkanen, whom he played with in Chicago, he said.
“Me and Lauri talk every day — about the way he plays, how the team plays, what certain guys like to do,” Dunn said.
Dunn likened it to walking into a new class for the first time and seeing your friend sitting there.
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The Spurs, who are all-in on the Victor Wembanyama sweepstakes, had lost 15 straight games entering Saturday’s contest and had a 14-47 record.
But in the first half, it was the Jazz — not the Spurs — who looked like they were riding a long losing streak.
San Antonio surprised the Jazz, getting out to a 10-point lead at halftime. The Jazz were shooting 42% from the field and 23.1% from 3 at the break. In particular, Spurs forward Jeremy Socahan was all over Markkanen, who didn’t make a 3 in the first half and had just seven points.
“San Antonio came out, put a ton of pressure on the ball, and did a great job of denying us early in the game. They were top locking Lauri. Their physicality and their intensity on that end took us out of our rhythm early in the game,” Hardy said.
That changed in the second half, as the Jazz outscored Spurs 30-14 in the third period, shooting 50% from the field while holding San Antonio to 25% shooting and 0 of 9 from 3.
Markkanen had 20 points in the second half, taking over the fourth quarter.
Utah’s defense kicked into high gear, holding the Spurs to 29.2% shooting and just 37 points in the second half. Walker Kessler had four blocked shots in the fourth quarter to prevent a Spurs comeback.
“Our team had to adjust as the game went on on both ends of the floor — how to guard their constant movement. They back cut as much as any team in the NBA and move the ball from side to side, a lot of player movement. For us offensively, it was about getting to our spacing trying to play more off of our defense and get out in transition, which I think in the second half we did much better,” Hardy said.
The small-ball lineup that ended the third quarter strong was interesting. The Jazz played Dunn, Jordan Clarkson, Ochai Agbaji, Rudy Gay and Juan Toscano-Anderson, who closed the period on a 9-4 run, giving Utah a 85-79 lead.
Hardy said the lineup helped the Jazz play with more pace, enabling the Jazz to get out in transition more and increased the team’s ability to switch on defense.
Two-game sets
The Jazz will face the Spurs again at Vivint Arena on Tuesday and then travel to Oklahoma City for a two-game set against the Thunder on March 3 and March 5.
The pattern is part of an increasing trend in NBA scheduling, where the away team stays in town to play the home team twice. It’s designed to cut down on the amount of travel.
It’s kind of playoff-like, where the sole focus on is one opponent.
Usually, the Jazz split their game preparation between two groups of assistant coaches: one group would prepare for tonight’s game, while the other group would be preparing for Tuesday’s opponent. When the opponent is the same both nights, it makes things easier.
“When you play a team twice in a row, obviously we’ll be able to really just dig in on San Antonio here for a couple of days. We’ll play the game tonight, we’ll go back, we’ll watch the film and we’ll try to make some necessary adjustments for game too. So it’s a unique setup,” Hardy said.
The Jazz have four two-game sets this season — in October vs. Memphis, in December vs. New Orleans, tonight and Tuesday vs. San Antonio, and March 3 and March 5 at Oklahoma City.
The Spurs benefit the most from this week’s arrangement. They’ll stay in Salt Lake City, with two days in between games, then they’ll be back at Vivint Arena to play the Jazz once again.
Spurs coach Gregg Popovich is a fan of the two game-sets.
“I mean, in some ways, it’s a pain in the neck because it’s sort of playoff-y where you adjust and change things when you’re playing somebody more than once that quickly. But it makes total sense travel-wise and wear and tear of everybody’s bodies and that type of thing. So it’s whoever’s idea it was, they deserve credit,” Popovich said.