Bruce Jenkins: Warriors face perhaps best Jazz team ever.
Forever is a long time, and for expert advice on the subject, we bring you the Utah Jazz, the Warriors’ opponent at Chase Center on Sunday afternoon. To say they have an inferiority complex would be cruel, but they can get a bit sensitive about their image.
If there’s a tendency to dismiss the Jazz, it’s because they haven’t won an NBA championship since they came into existence in 1974, spending five seasons in New Orleans before moving to Salt Lake City. That’s zero titles in 29 playoff appearances, but it’s curious: People don’t speak of this drought in the manner of the historically longsuffering Boston Red Sox, or Chicago Cubs, because in the big picture — deep inside the NBA community — Utah just doesn’t seem to matter.
When LeBron James and Kevin Durant chose sides for the recent AllStar Game, the final two selections boiled down to Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert, the Utah guys. The TNT crew called it “slander,” a direct insult, but James explained, “There’s no ‘slander’ to the Utah Jazz. You guys gotta understand, in video games growing up, we never played with Utah. Even as great as Karl Malone and John Stockton was, we never picked those guys in video games. Never.”
Then he and Durant shared a spell of wicked laughter. Whether this was an intentional slight or mere circumstance, it was vintage Utah, land of the disrespected. And this was after LeBron, musing that “I need some size,” picked Indiana’s Domantas Sabonis over the 7foot1 Gobert, the league’s best shotblocker and perennial candidate for Defensive Player of the Year.
Then there was Shaquille O’Neal’s TNT interview with Mitchell after the Jazz guard poured in 36 points during a win over New Orleans on Jan. 21. Shaq can be an insufferable bully at times, and this is how he began their chat: “I just said this on the air: You don’t have what it takes to get to the next level. I said that on purpose, and I wanted you to hear it.”
Well, first of all, of course Mitchell has what it takes. He gets better by the week, and aside from his spectacular oncourt performances, he has become Utah’s unquestioned team leader. “I been hearin’ that since my rookie year,” said a stunned Mitchell in reply. “I just want to get better, do what I do.” Days later, “It didn’t really bother me,” Mitchell said. “Shaq isn’t my coach. If he doesn’t agree that I’m a superstar, that’s cool. I just have to go out and make sure that I play for my teammates.”
This is an exceptional Jazz team, perhaps its best ever, charging out of the AllStar break with a leaguebest 279 record. Six of their rotation players have hovered around 40% shooting from 3point range, Gobert is a worthy anchor at both ends of the floor, and Quin Snyder is widely admired for his coaching strategy. You’d think all this would foster a bit of swagger, but the Jazz harbor too many thoughts of conspiracy.
After a March 3 loss to Philadelphia, Mitchell complained that “we continually get screwed (by the officials). It’s really, really, really getting out of hand.”
Perhaps it’s best to just watch this cohesive, smoothflowing team and forget about the excess. It could be the Jazz are on to something. Maybe this year they put the brakes on forever.
Shifts take a hit
Among the many rules changes to be implemented in baseball’s minor leagues this season, most refreshing are the antishift measures that will apply across DoubleA ball. All four infielders will be required to have both feet on the infield dirt — or the infield grass, if they’re playing in — as the pitch is being delivered. And the door will be left open to a future mandate demanding two infielders on each side of second base. It sounds terribly restrictive and really shouldn’t come to this, but such is the overbearing impact of analytics, creating those ludicrous scenes where the outfield crowds up like a neighborhood barbecue. Aesthetically and fundamentally, it’s a very tired look . ... Would it kill NBC Sports Bay Area to televise more Giants exhibition games? For fans sheltering at home, watching live or tapedelaying the games, it would be a blessing to watch the Giants’ cherished prospects more than a handful of times. ... Vintage “Hey, what page are we on?” from MLB: The Texas Rangers plan to sell every seat for their April 5 home opener.
The Washington Nationals aren’t allowing any fans at all, at least as things stand now. Neither plan makes a whole lot of sense, and the Rangers’ idea is glaringly reckless ... Great to hear that Kate Scott got such a terrific break, assigned by 95.7 The Game to call radio playbyplay on the Warriors’ March 29 game against Chicago. We’ve always expected great things from Scott, who cohosts The Morning Roast on 95.7 and has had breakthroughs with NFL and NHL assignments. This one is especially promising . ... A tweet from noted baseball historian Bill James: “I’ve been studying baseball professionally for 50 years; you know what I never saw until now? The Giants of the 1960s lost 4 pennants because they had crappy shortstops. They had (Eddie) Bressoud ,( Jose) Pagan, (Dick) Schofield ,( Tito) Fuentes ,( Hal) Lanier. None of them was what you would call ‘average.’ ” Debatable, in some cases, but the man has a point.