SALT LAKE CITY – Last week as the Utah Jazz and Denver Nuggets began their first round of the NBA playoffs, Utah head coach Quin Snyder emphasized the idea that it’s indeed a series that both sides should be ready to dig into. for the long hall.
That message was pertinent to the short Jazz after they let Game 1 slip away, but now that they have flashed the series on their head with blowout wins in the last two games, these words often carry the same weight, even as the context behind them has changed.
With Utah wins of 19 points on Wednesday and 37 points on Friday in Orlando, how each squad is mentally prepared for Sunday night’s Game 4 can be a big determining factor in who comes out on top. Will the Jazz be aggressive in trying to blow the series open, or will they become independent? Will the Nuggets set a fighting level that they have not had in the last two games or have they checked out of the series?
“We have to be ready to play the next game and keep our focus and our intensity,” Snyder said Friday after game 3. “That will be the challenge. I think our team can do that. They want to do that. Of course play. we are against a very good team. “
Utah veteran point guard Mike Conley is now in the 11th playoff series of his career, and so far this one plays out like a number of others in which he has been involved over the years, with one side the advantage alone to see the other rally back.
‘I’ve been here. I know the series can shift in so many different ways, “he said Friday after scoring 27 points in his playoff debut in 2020.” We just have to keep fighting and keep being consistent, playing together and having fun. while we do it. “
Considering Snyder’s idea that each game of a series is its own entity, Conley notes that it does not ultimately matter how much the Jazz have dominated the past two games. The fact remains that if Denver wins on Sunday, the series will be re-bound, a far cry from Utah that has a grip on it.
‘Of course, every win is important. For us to have two now is great, but whether you win by one or 20, they are all just one win, ”said Conley. “In the same way, if we were to lose by 20 points, we have to come back and pull them out and come up with adjustments for the next game.”
While the Jazz try to stay straight and self-keeled in Game 4, it’s true that they’ve been the better team for the last two games. It has been uncompetitive on opposite sides of the floor, unlike the previous four meetings between these two sides this season, all of which were tightly below the line.
“Obviously, the coaching staff is credited for the position they have placed us in, and then to the players for going out and running,” Joe Ingles, Utah forward, said Saturday, “but it still has a long way to go. We are not going for ourselves at all. ”
Yet the fact that the Jazz played so well, especially in Game 3, gives center Rudy Gobert the confidence that they can continue it on Sunday.
“The good thing is we played our game,” he said Friday. “There was nothing I did not see from this team before. We play hard, we communicate on defense and offensively, we attack the court and move the ball. I know Mike, Joe, Donovan (Mitchell) can do all the shots every night, so it’s all about doing the right thing and making the right play. ”
