Breaking Down The Grizzlies Third Quarter Against The Jazz

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – The Utah Jazz evened their playoff series with the Memphis Grizzlies after a 141-129 victory on Wednesday night. Despite building a 20 point halftime lead, the Grizzlies used a staggering 43 point quarter to trim their deficit to just two points, before the Jazz All-Stars eventually put the game away for good in the fourth quarter.

Memphis converted on 15 consecutive possessions to open the second half, scoring 34 points in seven and a half minutes, including 15 made field goals on 18 attempts, 4-5 shooting from the three-point line, and zero free-throw attempts.

Here’s a look at each play, and how the game-changing run occurred.

Dillon Brooks Contested Mid-Range Jumper (O’Neale Contest Under Screen)

The first basket of the quarter, Memphis runs Royce O’Neale off an off-ball screen, then through a dribble hand-off (DHO) with Jonas Valanciuas. Dillon Brooks dribbles into a difficult mid-range pull-up on a nice recovery from O’Neale.

The Jazz celebrate contested mid-range jumpers, but Brooks has proven he can hit them comfortably in this series.

Ja Morant Walk-Up Three (Conley Goes Under Screen)

Off a made basket, Ja Morant dribbles into an open three after Mike Conley goes under on a Jonas Valanciunas drag screen.

This is the danger of going under on a Ja Morant three. pic.twitter.com/FH0HfGA1nk

— Ben Anderson (@BensHoops) May 27, 2021

Morant isn’t a terrific shooter, but he shot 37 percent from three over the final 15 games of the regular season.

Dillon Brooks Open Three of Out Of Inbound (O’Neale Goes Under Screen)

On a sideline out-of-bounds play O’Neale shades towards Morant to prevent him from catching the inbound pass. Brooks makes the smart read in a quick pass to Valanciuas who passes right back to the inbounder for an open three.

The Jazz were burned on three consecutive possessions when they went under the screener.

Kyle Anderson Put Back Push Shot (Mitchell Allows Easy Path To Paint)

Kyle Anderson easily drives against the smaller Donovan Mitchell, getting too far into the paint on his initial look, then clears the Jazz guard out for a quick putback.

These are the types of plays defensively that make it look like Mitchell’s ankle isn’t at 100 percent.

Ja Morant Fall Away 10 Footer (Gobert Drops In Coverage)

After knocking down a dribble-up three early in the quarter, Conley goes over the Valanciunas screen as Rudy Gobert drops against a driving Morant.

This is the danger of going over on a Ja Morant three. pic.twitter.com/cRaemLvmBy

— Ben Anderson (@BensHoops) May 27, 2021

Morant waits for the point of separation where Gobert has to cover both the ball handler and Valanciunas, and hits a tough fall-away 10-footer.

The Jazz are now going over screens after giving up baskets on the opening three possessions of the quarter going under the screener.

Jaren Jackson Jr Contested Three-Point Shot (Bogdanovic Late On Recovery)

Valanciunas and Jaren Jackson Jr. set a double-screen for Morant, but Jackson slips the pick, leaving Valanciunas to screen Bojan Bogdanovic off of the floor-spacing big man.

With Bogdanovic going under the Valanciunas screen, Morant hits Jackson Jr. for a good look from three. Jackson Jr. is shooting 28 percent from three in the series, so this is a look the Jazz can probably live with.

Dillon Brooks Coast-to-Coast Layup (Nobody Stops Ball)

Brooks bullies Conley’s attempt to stop the ball at mid-court, and once Conley’s back is turned the Jazz don’t present any real threat to stop him from getting to the rim.

Mitchell’s help here (he does have to be mindful of Morant) makes me wonder how much he actually trusts his ankle right now. pic.twitter.com/jf0EbNOcyL

— Ben Anderson (@BensHoops) May 27, 2021

Mitchell has to keep an eye on Morant, but his effort helping in on Brooks against looks like a player who doesn’t trust his injured ankle.

Ja Morant 10 Foot Push Shot (Gobert Drops In Coverage)

Memphis runs a DHO with Morant and Anderson. Coming off the handoff, the Grizzlies run a pick and roll with Valanciunas with Conley again going over the screener.

Gobert again plays drop coverage and waits for him to disengage on the ball to cover the lob threat and rises for an easy push shot over the much smaller Conley.

Dillon Brooks Dump Off Layup (Conley Caught Ball Watching)

Morant easily displaces the flatfooted (injured) Mitchell of the dribble in isolation, forcing Gobert to rotate as the helper.

Conley gets caught ball watching Morant and never stops Brooks from driving into the paint for the easy dump-off catch and lay-in.

There were two major defensive failures on this play, all because of Morant.

Dillon Brooks Mid Range Jumper Shot (O’Neale Contests On Ice)

The Jazz ice (force ball handler baseline) Brooks on the Valanciunas pick and roll. However, Brooks still dribbles into a comfortable spot too close to the rim for a relatively easy, albeit contested mid-range jumper.

Ja Morant Paint Push Shot (Favors Switches Onto Morant)

On another Valanciunas pick and roll, Conley gets caught up on the screen as Derrick Favors switches onto coverage against Morant.

Kind of a half switch half drop coverage from Favors after Conley gets caught up on the Valanciunas screen.

Morant easily gets to his spot. pic.twitter.com/oha8xCHODh

— Ben Anderson (@BensHoops) May 27, 2021

Morant easily gets to his spot in the paint and nails a nearly uncontested push shot.

Jonas Valanciunas Fade Away 12 Footer (Favors In Coverage)

Off a missed hook shot, Valanciunas grabs his own offensive rebound and resets the offense with Morant.

Valanciunas posts up against Favors again and hits a tough contested turnaround baseline fade away with the shot clock expiring.

Ja Morant Putback Layup (Conley Doesn’t Box Out)

Off a missed Valanciunas, Conley fails to put a body on Morant who corrals the long rebound and easily finishes at the rim.

Jonas Valanciunas Hook Shot (Favors In Coverage)

In one of the more straightforward plays of the run, the Grizzlies dump the ball down to Valanciunas for a hook shot over Favors.

This is how important Rudy Gobert is.

He subbed out of the game and Memphis went at Favors on five straight offensive sets. pic.twitter.com/6kRypz4Y5s

— Ben Anderson (@BensHoops) May 27, 2021

The Grizzlies have now gone at Favors on five straight sets. As soon as Gobert subbed out of the game, Morant attacked Favors for a push shot, then Valanciunas tried a hook shot, before making a mid-range fade away. Valanciunas then attempts a top of the key three, and finally another hook shot.

Kyle Anderson Three-Point Shot (Ingles Slow On Closeout)

On the final basket of the run, the Jazz play a pretty strong defensive sequence, with Joe Ingles fighting over a Valanciunas screen to stick with Anderson. Anderson kicks the ball out to Brooks after the Jazz close off the paint.

Brooks then attacks the paint as Ingles has had to defend Valanciunas with Favors patrolling the middle of the key.

Brooks kicks the ball back to Anderson to steps back for a three as Ingles fights to recover on the closeout after defending the rim.

Looking At Grizzlies Third Quarter Numbers

Looking at the Grizzlies’ 34 points, the first surprise might come in how the scoring was distributed.

First, while Morant was dominant, scoring 11 points on 5-5 shooting, he was matched identically by Brooks who also had 11 points on a perfect 5-5 shooting. That’s the payoff Taylor Jenkins got for leaving Brooks in the game even after he picked up his fourth foul early in the second half.

Second, Valanciunas was incredibly productive as a screener, averaging 12 screen assists per game through two games of the series. As a reference point, Gobert ranked second in the NBA this season by averaging 6.1 screen assists per game.

Kind of funny as Jazz fans who love to celebrate Rudy Gobert's screen assists, they're giving all the credit to Ja Morant for his success and not Valanciunas.

Jonas is averaging 12 screen assists per game over the first two outings.

For reference, Gobert averaged 6.1 all year.

— Ben Anderson (@BensHoops) May 27, 2021

As is the case with Gobert, some of those screen assists are due to excellent shot-making by the guards, but Morant is getting so many good looks because of the quality of Valanciunas’s screens.

Valanciunas screens accounted for 17 points for Grizzlies guards, while he scored another four points of his own. Of the 34 points Memphis scored in the run, Valanciunas was directly involved in 21 of them.

Finally, sometimes you must tip your hat to a team’s hot shooting, with little else the defense can do to alter shots. In this stretch, Morant (30 percent), Brooks (34 percent), Jackson Jr. (28 percent), and Anderson  (36 percent) all connecting on three-point shots despite shooting below the league average for the season.

Morant shot 3-3 on shots from 3-10 feet, despite shooting just 37 percent for the season, while Brooks shot 2-2 on shots between 16 feet and the three-point after shooting 46 percent on the season, and both shots were well contested.

that's a dime. oh that's a dime. @JaMorant | @dillonbrooks24 pic.twitter.com/nCtcS37w9F

— 🙅‍♂️- Memphis Grizzlies (@memgrizz) May 27, 2021

Ultimately, the Grizzlies’ rare and impressive run resulted from a perfect storm of defensive errors by the Jazz, strong execution by Morant, Brooks, and Valanciunas, and hot shooting from the entire lineup.

On the bright side for the Jazz, they’ve won five out of the eight quarters played so far in this series, and have won those quarters by a dominant 171-132 margin.

But, they must avoid runs like the Grizzlies made in the second quarter of game one when they outscored the Jazz 32-19 and Wednesday’s third quarter when they were outscored 43-29 if they want to quickly close out the series.