Half-court Heave: Questions for Game Five

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ICYMI: Another vintage Iso-Joe performance sealed the deal in game four. Joe will score 11 straight to lead the Jazz to victory if Ingles gets the plague, Hood lives a State Farm nightmare, or Snyder has a finger amputated. Read more of these scenarios, plus my grades of game four, by clicking here:

Ask anyone and they’ll all say the same: when tied at two games apiece, game five in a best-of-seven series is crucial. For the Jazz, on the road, the game has much riding on it. We all know why. Win and you get to go home for game six to close it out. According to some statistics, if the away team wins game five, their probability to win the series increases by 28.5%.

Game five kicks off at 8:30 PM Tuesday night. Someone needs to remind Trey Lyles the game is in LA. And when the Utah Jazz pay you to play professional basketball, you probably shouldn’t wear LA fandom. To a road game. In LA.

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Without further ado, let’s heave it from half-court with four questions leading up to the big game.

Can the Jazz stay undefeated in the playoffs when?

As Twitter was witty to point out, do you realize:

  • The Jazz are undefeated in the playoffs when Dante Exum swishes a three?
  • The Jazz are undefeated in the playoffs when Rudy Gobert plays more than 17 seconds?
  • The Jazz are undefeated in the playoffs when Joe Johnson scores 11 straight points in the fourth quarter?
  • The Jazz are undefeated in the playoffs when DeAndre Jordan shoots a three pointer?
  • The Jazz are undefeated in the playoffs when Gordon Hayward scores less than 19 points, and even better when he scores just three!
  • The Jazz are undefeated in the playoffs when Joe Ingles is John Stockton 2.0?
  • The Jazz are undefeated in the playoffs when all four point guards on the roster play in the same game?
  • The Jazz are undefeated in the playoffs when they don’t give up 60 points in the paint?
  • The Jazz are undefeated in the playoffs when Gordon Hayward gets food poisoning?
  • The Jazz are undefeated in the playoffs when they shoot better than 42% from three?
  • The Jazz are undefeated in the playoffs when I am not in attendance?
  • The Jazz are undefeated in the playoffs when The Baby Boy does NOT wear Jazz clothes during the day?
  • The Jazz are undefeated in the playoffs on playoff games on Sunday?

Keep it going, fellas. Whatever it is, just do that thing that wins games and keeps us undefeated for that weird, totally related to wins and losses reason. Yup.

Can Joe Johnson keep it going?

OK. I’m going to say it. You can hate me and @ me and call me a Debby Downer and Mr. Negative Pants, but listen, I’m just thinking out loud.

Can he keep this up?

He is playing lights out. The 7x all-star, who is in his 15th year of NBA service, is averaging 19.25 points per game, his best playoff average since 21 ppg in 12 Brooklyn games three years ago. His shooting percentage is hovering around 56%, THE BEST IN HIS PLAYOFF CAREER. LIKE EVER. The dude isn’t aging. He just keeps playing pick up ball, backing some poor, lonely sucker WHO ARE FELLOW PROFESSIONAL ATHLETES into the paint and scooping in two after two after two.

When the Jazz go small, the Clippers have no answer for Joe Johnson ball. Zach Lowe, of ESPN, pointed out that ideally the Clippers would pit Luc Mbah Moute on Johnson because he’s their best defender. They did that in game four, but that’s because Hayward was heaving in the locker room. In game five, with a presumably healthy Hayward, Mbah Moute will have his hands full shutting G down like the food poisoning did. That leaves who to take Johnson? Paul Piece is too fragile, Jamal Crawford is too small, Speights is too slow and that’s basically all they can throw at him. Austin Rivers is returning (more on that below) and he’s a good defender, but he’s a shooting guard and Joe is Joe (and playing power forward).

If they can’t slow him down, Joe’s body may be the only thing that does so. He’s playing some of the best basketball of the season, right now, and his stats are looking pretty. Will it regress to the mean? What is his mean? What happens if he misses a bucket in the 4th Quarter? Does he know how to do that? Is it even physically possible? For the record, I do not know the answer to these questions.

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What kind of impact will Austin Rivers have on the game?

It’s being reported that Austin Rivers will make his series debut on Tuesday, after dealing with a hamstring injury for the last month or so. He’ll be limited, perhaps still hobbled, and he’ll be on a minutes restriction. Doc Rivers even hinted that the minute restrictions could be as severe as just twelve minutes of game time. But Doc says he is at least a body. Austin was so inspired by Gobert’s triumphant return that he decided he wants to play some ball too.

Unlike Gobert, I do not expect Rivers to hit all six of his shots. He’ll take some minutes away from Raymond Felton (which might be a good thing as Felton was playing annoyingly well this series) or Jamal Crawford, but unlike those two, he can play offense and defense. He was a mini Jazz killer during the regular season, getting about 15 points a game in about 25 minutes of play, so could cutting that in half be what we expect?

He’ll give the crowd some juice, maybe nail a three or two, but that’s about it. I’m not expecting big things.

Did Hood and Ingles find their stroke?

Rodney Hood shot 37% from three during the regular season; Joe Ingles was at 44%. In this series, Ingles has slightly dipped, now at 40%. Hood? Up to 44%

Does that amaze you? It amazes me. How does it not amaze you?? It seems like Ingles has missed so many threes and it seemed like Hood couldn’t make a shot either. I thought both would have significantly lower percentages, as it felt like neither had made a shot in a year-and-a-half.

Nonetheless, both hit huge buckets to end game four which could help their confidence to shoot when open and swish and shimmy as often as possible. Hood shoots about four threes a game; Ingles is at five. If they can hit 5/9, with Hayward and Hill chipping in too, the Jazz will be in good shape. As a team, they have shot the three ball really well this series (42% as a team compared to 37% during the regular season). They’ll either keep it up and it’ll lead to a new round of bball verses the Warriors or they will dry up, get cold, and we’ll see an ugly blow-out.

Be sure to comment below with your keys/questions to game five. Fill in the blank: The Jazz win tonight if____________

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