SALT LAKE CITY – In the first move of his long-awaited first All-Star Game, Mike Conley faced Chris Paul in the opening of the second quarter.
He missed the jump.
“I was not prepared for the tip,” said Conley after the game. “I was told I was going outside and getting ready to protect someone and I’m looking back (and the bank said), ‘Mike, go jump.’ I wish I had won the tip. “
Now you can consider that a practical race for a much more important one.
With 1.9 seconds to go before Utah’s 117-114 victory over Memphis on Friday, Conley lined up against Ja Morant for a high ball. What was at stake was simple: if he succeeded, Jazz would win. If he lost, the Grizzlies could have a final chance of drawing the game.
Jazz clearly assumed it would be the last. So much so that there was not a single Jazz musician created behind Conley. It turns out that Conley still has some heels. The veteran point guard stood up and won the point against the tallest Morant, and Derrick Favors quickly hurried to get the rebound and secure the victory.
“Mike managed to jump!” Jordan Clarkson said.
“I haven’t seen Mike jump so high since Ohio,” added Donovan Mitchell.
Rudy Gobert joked that “Normally, I would tell him to go up as fast as I did, but I lost mine today, so I couldn’t give him any advice – he wouldn’t take me seriously.”
That final move officially thwarted a furious Grizzlies rally in the fourth quarter, giving Utah the first round of a strange Memphis routine. The two teams will face each other three times in four games, with the second round arriving on Saturday at Vivint Arena.
Before the game, Jazz talked about the strange series of midseasons with the Grizzlies. Gobert said he would be a physicist, and Georges Niang warned that Memphis would not go away easily. There was nothing particularly noteworthy about these quotes – just the common sayings about an opposing team.
Then the game happened.
The final seconds showed Kyle Anderson trying to fly high over Rudy Gobert to get a final rebound (and getting a lot of body), and Morant trying to pull Conley’s ball off, sending the Jazz guard to the ground in the process.
Physical? To check.
Never say die? Check and check.
“It is a real challenge because you will not be able to follow just one game plan to beat that team,” said Niang before the game. “The way we protect them tonight will be different from the way we protect them tomorrow, because the teams are smart.”
Memphis had better have a new game plan on Saturday in the second round, because what the Grizzlies were doing against Donovan Mitchell certainly didn’t work.
The Jazz All-Star guard had 35 points, six assists and five rebounds. He won early, scoring 19 points in the first half while Jazz raced to a big advantage. And he was late, scoring Utah’s last 10 points to help secure the Memphis rally.
Speaking of this rally, Jazz will have some things to work on in the rematch too.
Utah (33-11) led with 21 points in the first quarter, looking like the team that went wrong for the rest of the league earlier this season. Mitchell succeeded, Bojan Bogdanovic found a rhythm entering the painting and Gobert was finishing everything with pick and roll.
Jazz, who sits at the top of the NBA standings due to his 3-point prowess, hit just six points out of 3 in the first half. Memphis made a concerted effort to get the ball deep, so Utah came in.
Gobert had 25 points out of 11 out of 14 shots; each of these shots was less than five feet from the arc.
“They were staying at home with the snipers, so it was difficult to get those expulsions,” said Jazz coach Quin Snyder.
Gobert has improved as a passer this season and has succeeded in finding teammates in the corners while rolling to the edge. With the Grizzlies not coming down to stop him, he just scored himself.
“When they are doing a fall cover and keeping the guys on snipers, it will usually be a two against one every time,” said Gobert.
But after everything went well, a 13-5 run in Memphis in the final minutes of the game meant that Jazz had to sweat it out until final possession.
Dillon Brooks, who had hit three consecutive 3s in the fourth period, tried a tied 3 that ricocheted and left. Conley went to the ground to secure the rebound, but was tied for a high ball 1.9 seconds from the end.
Conley didn’t miss the jump this time.
“I think it’s a quick bet in the locker room: we’re still waiting for him to bury,” said Clarkson. “So, we should have bet that he would win a high ball too. He uses Jordan – they only hire people who bury and do things like that. I think Mike is the only one who stays on the ground, so I hope he is buried soon and we win some money from that. “