With apologies to those dying to know Cody Williams’ grade for the night, I’m going to avoid writing a paragraph about players who appeared in fewer than 10 minutes tonight. Nothing personal to Cody and Taylor; they just didn’t leave an imprint in this game. I’m still sending a shoutout to Oscar Tshiebwe, though, the only player not to appear in tonight’s win against Brooklyn.
Oh, Keyonte, my beloved. What you may lack in consistent field goal shooting, you always make up for in playmaking, free throw shooting, and moxie. Yes, moxie. Enough to will an in-and-out 3-ball to fall back through the rim. Enough to turn a 2-for-8 first half into a 31-point night. Enough to blend the perimeter defense and fit passes through the gaps to his wide-open teammates. Ten assists to one turnover? Spectacular findings for the “Keyonte George: Point Guard” experiment.
Lauri’s offensive philosophy is simple: efficiency, efficiency, efficiency (probably could have just said that once). His distance trigger had been faulty all evening (didn’t hit his first 3-pointer until 3:34 left in the fourth), so what does Lauri do? He attacks from within the semicircle (missing just four non-three-point attempts all night), and waits for the flow of the game to come to him. Two consecutive hits from the top of the arc pushed the Jazz ahead late, as he waved goodbye to the Brooklyn Nets.
Walter Clayton Jr’s chin: A+
The rookie’s face was the recipient of a rocket-powered flying knee early in this game — a merciless and grizzly collision — as he fell floorwards and met the heaven-bound kneecap of Terrance Mann Jr. A shot that certainly would have given the average man cause for pause, Walt continued play and put together a servicable night, minus one head-scratching fourth-quarter pass to a lucky fan in the stands. Probably residual effects of the first half incident.
Still, he correctly called for Coach Hardy to review an out-of-bounds call, and posted terrific shooting splits of Salute.
He hit a skyhook so nice that Svi Mykhailiuk felt inclined to try it himself on the following play… to poor results. Still, slow-motion has a way of manipulating emotions, sensationalising even the most mundane of moments, and thus influencing one’s emotional attachment to any instance. Anderson was active on the glass; his defensive hands were more abundant than Undertale’s Muffet (four steals, are you kidding?), and his presence in the rotation was most welcome by this purveyor of hoops.
I’m convinced that Svi would be the greatest player in any pickup basketball game in the world. Once or twice a game, he’ll whip out some double-cross, stepback, fallaway three-ball that would make Patrick Ewing positively lose his mind. Yet, the ball goes in. He’s a good player, and I’m done fighting it, I guess.
A passable, though not incredible, evening for Brice tonight. He hit just two shots in 21 minutes, which is a tough fact to digest for a score-first type of guy. He was fine, and I’ll give him credit for getting his assist total above his turnovers, but I really don’t have much more to say.
Oh man, not the Ace Bailey edition of a Tony Snell game. Ace was quiet all night, pushing five points on six shots during his 25 minutes of game time. He wasn’t especially aggressive, nor did he command the ball during his time of the floor. With a final stat line of five points, two rebounds, and a dozen goose eggs, Bailey must not have been a critical player in tonight’s game plan. On to the next.
The Neopolotan suit was an appropriate and stylish pick for a night in Brooklyn. Unfortunately, the red and gray mix, paired with the uneven double-breasted style, made the half-and-half more of an unsatisfying 53-47 split, and that urks me. You get an F, sir. Do better.
Watching a Collier jump shot clunk off the rim is like watching someone trip on their own shoelaces. It’s not graceful, it’s not encouraging, it’s just an ugly, ugly fall. Collier’s scoring tool kit displayed its lack of versatility in his 13 minutes of play tonight. Three points and three assists with two turnovers for the first-rounder out of USC. It’s clear that Will Hardy is beginning to lean in Walter Clayton’s direction when it comes to in-game reps.
Filipowski was excellent tonight. A very low-waste, high-production type of night for Flip as a starter, he converted 31 minutes into 15 points, eight rebounds, and five assists. Two steals on top of that? Well, howdy there, Kyle. You were looking great tonight. It’s nights like these that illustrate just how much value Utah got with Filipowski in last year’s second round. He shouldn’t have slid, and now he’s a bullet in Hardy’s chamber.