Well the playoffs are starting to get a little exciting with some actual basketball drama. Round one’s faux competition stink has worn off and it’s good to see the Spurs give it to the Rockets on the road and take back their home court advantage in what should continue to be an exciting series that I hope goes the full seven games. The Eastern playoff series are getting less and less exciting from a competitive basketball perspective, but it’s getting ramped up on the in full on man drama as the the Wizards and Celtics get more and more chippy with every game. It’s weird to think that the NBA playoffs last a little over two months but we don’t really get to the action until half way through round two, but thus is the landscape of the NBA at the moment. Still it all seems a bit bleak as the Warriors loom around every corner, and seemingly only need to play at 80% in order to blow teams off the floor, but the Jazz put up a fight tonight so lets break it down!

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Warriors 102 Jazz 91

This game looked over after the first quarter as the Warriors hopped out to a 27-17 lead but the Jazz were able to battle back in the second to make it a game and actually go up one point.The French Connection was in full swing as Boris Diaw and Rudy Gobert played very good games. Diaw ended up as a +3 on the game in his 26 minutes while scoring 10 points to go along with five rebounds, one assist, and a steal, but his contributions were typical for the ex-Spur as he created offensive opportunities for those around him while he was on the court. Gobert finished the game with 21 points, 15 rebounds, four assists and two blocks and was actually a far more impressive offensive force tonight than he was defensive. He got wide open for multiple lob opportunities and took full advantage as he put in seven of his eight shot attempts.

The name of the game for the Jazz though was shooting, and they couldn’t get anything going tonight. Gordon Hayward struggled to deal with Kevin Durant on the defensive end and it may have hurt him on the offensive end as well as he hit just 7-of-18 shot. He did get to the basket a ton in this game however and hit 13-of-14 free throw attempts while adding in six assists and a pair of 3-pointers. Rodney Hood played 32 minutes while coming off the bench but only hit 1-of-8 shots to score three points with three assists and three boards, and the Jazz just need more from him. He’s shown the ability to be special before but every time he’s been given more opportunity this season he’s just had something missing. Meanwhile Australian Steph Curry A.K.A. Joe Ingles had another solid outing as he scored 10 points with five rebounds, two steals, a block, and two 3-pointers. He’s going to get a nice contract this off season, possibly to start. Shelvin Mack started at point and played 37 minutes and had maybe the best game of any Jazz player on both ends of the court as he scored 11 points with five assists, four rebounds, a steal and a 3-pointer to end with a team best +6 differential on the night.

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The Warriors were up and down throughout this game as the came out to a blazing start and ended with a bang, but they had some struggles in between where they nearly let this game go. The beginning of the third quarter was particularly brutal as the Warriors scored just seven points in the first six minutes of the quarter, five of which belonged to Zaza Pachulia. Kevin Durant was unstoppable in the end as he scored 38 points with 13 rebounds, an assist, a steal, a block and four 3-pointers all while hitting 15-of-26 from the field and all four of his free throw attempts. He was the complete package as he brought it on both ends of the court every minute he was out there, and I think doubts can be laid to rest about what kind of condition he is in after played 39 minutes and putting on a clinic. Stephen Curry played well but struggled with his shot some as he started off 0-of-6 from beyond the arc but ultimately ended up with three 3-pointers and a 6-of-2o mark from the field. Curry scored 23 points and added five rebounds and four assists while getting to the line to hit 8-of-9 attempts as well.

Klay Thompson had a rough night on offense as he scored just six points on 1-of-9 shooting and barely added one rebound and a block to register on the stat sheet. There’s a reason he still ended up a +4 for the night though and that’s because he brought some excellent defense to the floor as he and the rest of the Warriors were able to suffocate the Jazz on offense. Draymond had a subpar game by his standards but he still managed to score nine points with 10 rebounds, five assists, a steal, and a block. Andre Iguodala scored 11 points with four rebounds, two assists, and two 3-pointers while locking absolutely abusing the Jazz on the defensive end and JaVale McGee made it onto the court for 12 highly effective minutes where he scored two points and grabbed seven rebounds for the Warriors. They’re an embarrassment of riches that can’t even lose on nights when only two of their starters can crack double digit scoring.

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