These 5 reasons are why the Utah Jazz made the West playoffs again

The Utah Jazz faced a 13-point deficit and historic odds with 9:29 left in an early February game against the San Antonio Spurs. Gregg Popovich’s teams had been in this situation — up 13 during a fourth quarter — 778 times since he started coaching the Spurs, according to ESPN Stats and Info, and they had won in 775 of those instances. Or, 99.6 percent of the time, a number so high it rounds up to 100 percent.

San Antonio essentially doesn’t lose in situations like that, but in that game, they did.

That was Utah’s 10th straight win, and part of one of the league’s most impressive stretches all season. From Jan. 24 to March 17, the Jazz played 23 games spanning both sides of the All-Star break and won all but two of them. They started nine games under .500, but 21 wins later, they were 10 games over the break-even mark.

Since Rudy Gobert’s second return this season, the Jazz have gone 29-7 with the best net rating in the league, outscoring teams by 10.6 points per 100 possessions. Their defense has been remarkably good, allowing just 97.9 points per 100 possessions, nearly four points better than the next closest team.

That remarkable run meant the Jazz officially clinched their playoff spot Sunday, winning a 47th game and holding the requisite tiebreakers. They’ll go for a 48th win on Tuesday against the Golden State Warriors, and finish their season Wednesday in Portland against the Trail Blazers, who currently sit one game above them in the No. 3 seed. Portland can clinch their spot by winning either of their final two games, but Utah obviously has a say in that, too.

Here are the main reasons behind Utah’s remarkable second half surge that led them to the postseason again, despite losing a star in free agency just last summer.

Let’s start obvious — this Jazz season wouldn’t be possible without Mitchell’s immediate emergence. We can debate whether his rookie candidacy has rivaled Ben Simmons’ later on, but he has unexpectedly made it into the debate.

The first-year sensation has been waxed about at length, like in this wonderful SB Nation story by Seerat Sohi from earlier this year:

Ask Snyder what he finds most impressive about him, and he’ll rhapsodize on Mitchell’s adaptability.

“The analogy I’ve given is you cook someone a steak and they eat the steak. But he’s not full. You cook him a plate of spaghetti, he eats that, he’s not full. You make him fish, and so on and so forth. He’s stayed hungry, literally. And that’s fun for a coach.”

Mitchell’s creativity is well past his years, like this Steve Nash-esque flip off the wrong foot while basically still glued to the ground.

Rookies shouldn’t be pulling tricks like that out during real, live NBA games, but rookies shouldn’t be averaging nearly 20 points as the team’s leading option, either.

The NBA is increasingly defending pick-and-rolls between ball handlers and rim runners like this: with guards playing over screens, while defenders never extend past the foul line. It does two things: encourages mid-range jumpers from guards, and helps prevent easy runs straight at the rim that turn into alley-oops.

It does require, however, that defenders actually make it over the screen. With Gobert, you can’t take that for granted.

Gobert leads the league with 6.2 screen assists, a stat that tracks when a screen frees up a teammate for a made shot. While Gobert is still most valuable for his defense, he has firmly established himself as a dangerous player on both ends. It’s hard to sneak past his 7’1 frame and 8’ wingspan, and against a drop or ice pick-and-roll coverage, that can result in wide-open shots like above.

Look at this:

Tell me that isn’t a man with all the confidence in the world. Ingles got $52 million last summer from the Jazz, and you can bet they don’t regret any of it. The Australian is averaging career highs across the board, has increased his playmaking to 4.1 assists per game, and at one point led the entire NBA in three-point shooting. Sometimes, as if he’s bored and needs a new party trick, Ingles will launch threes without even bringing the ball below his chest. (It’s a technique stolen from Anthony Morrow, of course.)

Ingles gets overwhelmed athletically sometimes, but his clever ball skills and tortoise-esque, slow-but-steady dribble drives have turned into a staple for the Jazz offense. Utah coach Quin Synder has done a masterful job matching up his player’s strengths with their actual role on the team, and none more than Ingles, who is thriving.

We’ve been debating whether Favors and Gobert can coexist next to each other for years now, and it does make offense tough to find when the starting lineup that also includes the poor shooting Ricky Rubio. (Rubio had been gotten hot before his injury two games ago, but it’s hard to predict whether that’s sustainable.)

With the right players around them, though, the Favors and Gobert duo is working. In 841 minutes together, the Jazz outscore teams by 7.0 points per 100 possessions with a stingy defense. Favors is still an elite finisher around the rim — shooting 77.5 percent — and the Jazz can combat some of the poor spacing with quick, frequent ball movement. Here’s an example:

Synder still often has a quick hook for Favors, subbing him out at the six or seven minute mark in first and third quarters so he can alternate him and Gobert at center the rest of the way. But if the two are going to coexist on the same team, then they must do it together on the floor at times, too. It has worked surprisingly well.

Mitchell’s emergence has saved the Jazz, but their defense is still the backbone. Gobert’s contesting 15.1 shots per game, which is best in the league. Between Favors’ solid yeoman work, Rubio on the perimeter, and even Ingles, Utah is just solid all around. Gobert might win Defensive Player of the Year, even though he won’t clear 60 games played.

If one rookie success story wasn’t enough, though, Utah might have a second. In 44 games this season, the Jazz are allowing just 98.7 points per 100 possessions when Royce O’Neale is on the floor. He occasionally plays in the starting lineup when there are injuries, and even logged 38 minutes in a shorthanded win against the San Antonio Spurs earlier this year.

O’Neal provides a spurt of wing defense and athleticism, enough to make up for somewhat sporadic outside shooting. Utah also added Jae Crowder at the trade deadline, and he brings similar play off the bench as well.

Utah’s clever and creative from their coaching on down. They have emerged as a team that no one wants to play in the Western Conference, and they might be even better than their record shows. Their past couple months certainly point to that.

This piece was originally published on Feb. 13, predicting that the Utah Jazz would make the playoffs. It has been updated on April 9, when the Jazz clinched a spot.