SALT LAKE CITY – In his first game of his long-awaited All-Star Game, Mike Conley faced Chris Paul for the opening quarter of the second quarter.
He lost the jump.
“I wasn’t ready for a tip,” Conley said after that game. “I was told I was going there and I was getting ready to guard someone and I looked back (and the bank said), ‘Mike, go jump.’ I wish I had won the tip. “
Now you can consider a practice running for a much more important one.
With 1.9 seconds left of Utah’s 117-114 victory over Memphis on Friday, Conley lined up against Ja Morant for a jump ball. The stakes were simple: if he got it, Jazz won. If they lose, the Grizzlies could have one last chance to tie the game.
Jazz has clearly assumed that it will be the latter. So much so that there was not a single jazz player installed behind Conley. Looks like Conley still has some hops. The veteran guard got up and won the tip against the high-flying moron, and Derrick Favors quickly hurried to recover and secure the victory.
“Mike jumped!” Said Jordan Clarkson.
“I haven’t seen Mike jump so high from Ohio State,” added Donovan Mitchell.
Rudy Gobert joked that “Normally I would tell him to climb as fast as I could, but today I lost mine, so I couldn’t give him any advice – he wouldn’t take me seriously.”
The final game officially countered a furious Grizzlies rally in the fourth quarter, giving Utah the first round of a strange programming oddity between Memphis. The two teams will play each other three times in four games, round 2 will follow on Saturday at Vivint Arena.
Before the game, Jazz talked about the strange midseason series with the Grizzlies. Gobert said he would be physical, and Georges Niang warned that Memphis would not disappear easily. There was nothing particularly remarkable about those quotes – just the usual cookies about an opposing team.
Then the game happened.
The final seconds featured Kyle Anderson trying to get close to Rudy Gobert to get a late pivotal comeback (and to get a lot of body), and Morant tried to get the ball away from Conley, sending the Jazz point guard to soil in this process.
Physical? Check it out.
He never says you’re dying? Check and verify.
“It’s a real challenge, because you won’t be able to stick to one game plan to beat that team,” Niang said before the game. “The way we guard them tonight will be different from the way we guard them tomorrow because the teams are smart.”
Memphis would have a better game plan Saturday in Round 2, because what the Grizzlies were doing against Donovan Mitchell certainly didn’t work.
The Jazz All-Star goalkeeper had 35 points, six assists and five rebounds. He managed to go early, scoring 19 points in the first half, while Jazz headed for a big advantage. And he managed to go late, scoring the last 10 points in Utah to help hold back the rally in Memphis.
Speaking of that rally, Jazz will also have a few things to work on, in revenge.
Utah (33-11) led by up to 21 points in the first quarter, showing that the team overtook the rest of the league earlier this season. Mitchell continued, Bojan Bogdanovic found a rhythm, entering the paint, and Gobert finished everything from pick and roll.
The Jazz, who are at the top of the NBA rankings due to their 3-point skill, made only six triples in the first half. Memphis made a concerted effort to clear the ball, but Utah came in to finish the match.
Gobert had 25 points in the 11-for-14 draw; each of those fires was less than five meters from the circle.
“They stayed home with shooters, so it was hard to get those shots,” said jazz coach Quin Snyder.
Gobert has improved as a passer this season and has found success in finding teammates in corners while rolling on the rim. Since the Grizzlies didn’t come down to stop him, he simply scored.
“When they make a drop coverage and keep the boys in the games, it will usually be one by one every time,” Gobert said.
But after all went well, a 13-5 run in Memphis in the final minutes of the game meant that the Jazz had to sweat in the final possession.
Dillon Brooks, who made three consecutive 3s in the fourth quarter, tried a 3-game-drawing that jumped around and out. Conley went to the floor to ensure recovery, but was tied for a jump ball at 1.9 seconds.
Conley did not miss the jump this time.
“I think it’s a continuous bet in the locker room: we’re still waiting for him to sink,” Clarkson said. “So we should have placed a bet on him to win a jump ball. And he wears Jordan – they only sign people who sink and do such things. I think Mike is the only one left on earth, so hopefully he gets a beating soon and we make some money on it. “