What's new

Deseret News - Video analysis: What to make of the Lakers’ fourth quarter offensive rebounds against the Jazz

S

Sarah Todd

Guest
AP22018368297642.0.jpg

Los Angeles Lakers guard Russell Westbrook (0) fights for the ball against Utah Jazz forward Royce O’Neale (23) and center Rudy Gobert (27) during the second half of an NBA basketball game in Los Angeles, Monday, Jan. 17, 2022. The Lakers won 101-95. | Ringo H.W. Chiu, AP

After holding the Lakers to just six offensive rebounds through three quarters, the Jazz allowed four in the fourth quarter. Was that really the problem in the Jazz’s loss?

LOS ANGELES — The Utah Jazz were doing a good job on defensive glass through the first three quarters of a 101-95 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers on Monday night. That is, until the fourth quarter came along.

After holding the Lakers to just six offensive boards through the first three quarters, the Jazz allowed four offensive rebounds in the fourth quarter as their lead dwindled and the Lakers retook control of the game.

In real time, the second-chance opportunities seemed to be a big part of the Lakers’ path to victory, but after rewatching the plays, the rebounding isn’t the part that hurt the Jazz.

It’s what happened after the offensive rebounds that was a bigger problem.

On this first one, Malik Monk is pushed right toward Rudy Gobert, who is there to contest the shot, and he blocks Monk’s attempt. It’s pretty difficult to block a shot and to come away with the rebound. Though Gobert is able to do that sometimes, the recovery here is just fine. No one on the Jazz is going to be mad about that offensive rebound.

But on the Lakers’ next drive in the same possession, Rudy Gay fouls LeBron James — the Jazz’s second team foul of the quarter.

This is actually the same possession. The Lakers get a second offensive board here and while you could say that maybe Mike Conley over helps or that Joe Ingles could have moved down to help rather than stay with a man who wasn’t crashing the boards, the Jazz prevent the putback and the taller Austin Reaves gets the board over Conley. Again, not really an egregious error to be mad at.

But the rotations after the Reaves rebound leaves Jordan Clarkson on James and the much smaller Clarkson fouls James as they fight for position. This is the Jazz’s third team foul of the quarter.

On this third offensive rebound, you would really like for Gobert to have a better feel for where Reaves is and work harder to box him out. At the same time, Reaves’ tip-in is just ridiculous luck.

It should be noted that at the 8:00 mark of the fourth quarter the Jazz committed their fifth team foul, which meant that they were in the penalty for the rest of the quarter. So it’s natural for defenders to push less and contest with a little more room when they know that any foul will send the other team to the free-throw line.

The Lakers’ final offensive rebound can pretty squarely be blamed on Royce O’Neale. He ball watches and doesn’t put a body on Stanley Johnson, who blows right by him for the board. Even if Conley and O’Neale weren’t properly communicating through this play, O’Neale should still be aware of who is around him when the ball goes up.

This one resulted in an Avery Bradley 3-pointer because the Jazz didn’t rotate quickly enough. Once the ball was in Bradley’s hands there wasn’t much the Jazz could do about it.

So after reviewing these, it wasn’t so much the rebounds that were the problem. The final one of the four is really the only one that stands out as a big mistake.

But the fouls that occurred after the first two put the Jazz in a bad spot and two more quick fouls led to less physical defense throughout the rest of the quarter and also gave the Lakers more opportunities at the free-throw line. That plus the Jazz missing shots and only scoring 17 points in the final 12 minutes of the game were the real problems.

Full Story from the Deseret News...
 
Top