24 hours after a disappointing loss to the Miami Heat, Utah Jazz had a great performance on both ends of the sold-out Orlando Magic; final score 125-109.
Orlando lost key rotation pieces for much of the season, including starters Markelle Fultz and Aaron Gordon. Even so, Magic kept the game closed throughout the first half.
Nikola Vucevic was the driving force for the Magic, especially with its bottom stroke. He finished the game with 34 points, ranging from 5 to 7 away. But his production alone was not enough to keep up with 7 double-digit Jazz men, led by Donovan’s 31.
Utah took control of the game in the third quarter, after Mitchell’s incredible 15-point effort in just 8 kicks. Review some of the highlights below:
The 7 Utah players with double-digit score totals were Mitchell, Clarkson Ingles, Gobert, Niang, Bogdanovic and Favors.
Favors and Gobert dominated the ring with 9-10 shots, helping the team to a FG% of 81 in the restricted area (93% tile).
Let’s check out some important numbers to tell the story of the game:
ORTG: 128.1 (93% tile)
DRTG: 113.7 (43% tile)
eFG% Advantage: + 9.8%
TOV% advantage: -8.3%
Advantage of OREB%: + 14.4%
FTA rate advantage: + 12.7%
Utah dominated the 4 factors, generating a reasonable amount of extra goal opportunities and having better kicking efficiency. This is a stellar recipe for victory.
Other important aspects of the game:
- Jordan Clarkson took down Magic guard Michael Carter-Williams with neat ball handling and footwork en route to a ball tray.
- Utah’s aggressiveness throughout the game yielded 16 FTA more than Orlando, a factor that contributed a lot to the final margin of victory.
- Jazz has a 3P% disadvantage in consecutive games (despite having a 3P frequency advantage in both); -14.1% in MIA, -3.4% in ENT.
- Chief referee Bill Kennedy left the game in the first half after a non-contact injury prevented him from continuing. The game continued with only two referees.
MVP
Joe Ingles
While Donovan Mitchell’s 25 points in the second half was the big push to open the game, Joe Ingles receives the great MVP for this game.
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Joe absolutely had a fantastic line of statistics: 17 points, 7 assists and 2 rebounds with only 1 turn while making a block and stealing. Despite Joe’s uncharacteristic shooting game (only 7-13), he impacted the game far more than the gross cash score contributions.
Without Conley (who sat in control of the hamstring for the second night in a row), it was up to Joe to be the stabilizing force of Jazz.
Utah was a best +25 game with Joe on the court. Unpredictably, Joe was third for Jazz in Win Probability Added (WPA).
Among the forwards. Joe Ingles is in the 99th percentile in points for attempted shooting and the 99th percentile in AST%.
Joe is calmly having one of the best filming seasons of all time. As if it weren’t a joke, he’s having one of the most insane shooting seasons of all time.
– McCade Pearson (@ McCadeP8) February 27, 2021
He kept Jazz afloat in the first half, while Donovan scored just 6 points and the team struggled with 32%. He was, as always, a calming but aggressive presence that the team needed while finding balance throughout the game.