Jamal Murray could set a record for points in a playoff series. Do the Jazz have a way to stop him?

Jamal Murray could very well score more points than any player has ever scored in a playoff series before this season.

Right now, he has 204 total points. LeBron James has the record with 241, so if Murray scores 38, he’ll surpass him. And after three straight games with 40 points or more, it certainly looks possible for Murray to get that total. (Donovan Mitchell, by the way, has 232 points in the series — already second all time. Both players have been lights out.)

But Murray’s performance has also needed a full team of individual defensive failures. Royce O’Neale, a man given a four-year extension for his defensive prowess on the ball, has shrunk from the moment. Joe Ingles, who once slowed All-NBA wing Paul George to the point of embarrassment, hasn’t had a prayer of staying with the shifty Murray. Donovan Mitchell can’t stay within touching distance, and Mike Conley is so small the Jazz haven’t even tried him, even though both are nominally the point guards for their teams.

The situation got so dire that Jordan Clarkson got the Murray assignment down the stretch of Game 6. Clarkson’s defensive reputation is such that former Grizzlies assistant GM John Hollinger wrote, “In general, if the answer to any defensive problem is ’Jordan Clarkson,’ you’ve either asked the wrong question or lack the sufficient answer.”

The truth is that the Jazz might just lack the sufficient answer. It’s clear that perimeter defense wasn’t a key concern when the roster was developed beyond O’Neale. If he’s not on his defensive game, perhaps the only solution is to start asking different questions of the Nuggets.

That means some combination of hard denial defense, pick-and-roll trapping, or perhaps just straight double teams from all over the court. If one player can’t stop Murray, perhaps two can.

“I think we could just be more, more physical, more present. Keep more bodies on him and try to get the ball out of his hands as much as possible,” Conley said.

Even as the Jazz have brought help, they’ve done it slowly and poorly. With Clarkson on the ball, for example, the plan was to have O’Neale come up and double Murray at the point of attack. Even then, though, a missed communication meant a free drive to the rim for the Nuggets guard.

“There were times in the game when we did try to trap him or hit him, get the ball out of his hands, but he’s playing terrific basketball,” Snyder said. “We’ve got to do a better job on him.”

And if the Jazz have defended it well, Murray has consistently made the right play, and role players like Jerami Grant and Torrey Craig are knocking down open shots. A double-team necessarily means a 4-on-3 elsewhere on the court, and the Nuggets have taken advantage of those situations in the past two games.

In the end, any plan to stop Murray — with either one or two players — is probably dead on arrival if the defensive execution by the players involved doesn’t improve. Without raising their level, Murray will roll over them again in Game 7, and the Jazz will likely go home. So far, they haven’t been able to do that.

There is one thing about Murray the Jazz have figured out, though.

“Well, we’ve figured out he’s pretty good,” Ingles quipped.




from The Salt Lake Tribune https://ift.tt/2Gahngd

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

U.S. nuns demand action to end ‘culture of silence’ on abuse

Vatican City • The largest U.S. association of Roman Catholic nuns urged its members Monday to report any sexual abuse of religious sisters by clergy and demanded that church authorities “take action to end a culture of silence, hold abusers accountable and provide support to those abused.” The Leadership Conference of Women Religious, which represents about 80 percent of Catholic sisters in the U.S., issued a statement Monday in response to an Associated Press report about several sisters coming forward recently to denounce assaults by priests and bishops. The LCWR said it didn’t have data on incidents in the U.S. but thanked the sisters for speaking out. “We understand that reporting abuse requires courage and fortitude. However, bringing this horrific practice to light may be the only way that sexual abuse by those in positions of trust in the church community will be put to an end,” the association’s statement said. The conference has about 1,300 members in 300 orders. LCWR s...
Read more

Latter-day Saint women can ‘remove prejudice’ and improve the world, Eubank says

Image
Highlights from Saturday evening’s women’s session of the General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints: 6:30 p.m.: Jesus heals our brokenness, says Primary leader (Photo courtesy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) Cristina B. Franco, second counselor in the general presidency of the children’s Primary, speaks during the women's meeting Oct. 3, 2020. Cristina B. Franco, second counselor in the general presidency of the children’s Primary, discussed the healing power of Jesus Christ. She told about getting a new piano that fell off a hand truck during delivery and was damaged. The manager offered to give Franco and her husband, Rudy, a new piano, but Rudy would not hear of it. He wanted the broken one back. “Sisters and brothers, aren’t we all like this piano, a little broken, cracked and damaged, feeling like we will never be the same again?” Franco asked. But Jesus Christ can “heal brokenness,” when people have faith, repent and seek...
Read more