Kelly Olynyk Reveals How Jazz Have 'Caught a Couple Teams Off-Guard'
On Saturday night, the Utah Jazz knocked off the No. 2 seeded team in the East and, two days later, defeated the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference. While both victories were monumental, Monday night's 128-120 win over the Sacramento Kings was even more impressive.
After all, the Jazz were customarily (it seems) without their starting backcourt and All-Star Lauri Markkanen. Head coach Will Hardy would need a secret weapon (or two) in order to send Sacto on its way as losers.
While the Kings definitely didn't see Ochai Agbaji's 27 points coming, it seemed the opponent also slept on Utah's new-look zone defense. Kelly Olynyk dished on how the Jazz's new defensive tactic has caught teams slippin'.
“I think it’s caught a couple teams off-guard," Olynyk said post-game. "They [Kings] kind of figured it out a little bit in the second half, but it’s all effort. It’s all effort and communication and that’s something—if we can get our effort and our talk going—we’re a better team. So I think that helps us, just spurs us on.”
No doubt, one of the collateral benefits of this zone defense is that it forces the guys on the court to talk, and that communication has had effects on the team that have reached farther than just the defensive side of the court. It also helps to have such a tenacious defender (Tenacious D, shoutout) on Utah's side now setting the tone in Kris Dunn.
Coach Hardy has been loath to open up too much on his new-look zone defense, but he did explain the genesis of it over the weekend.
“It’s something that we worked on earlier in the year for a little bit," Hardy said on Saturday night. "We weren’t quite ready to use it in a game. I was talked into bringing it back and giving it some more love by a couple of senior counsel members on the team. A couple of guys on the team came up to me at practice and we started talking about the zone, so we decided to bring it back and work on it some more.”
Talen Horton-Tucker claims that Utah didn't really start trotting it out at practice until Friday, the day before the Jazz defeated the Boston Celtics with the zone defense being the tip of the spear.
"Coach put it back in yesterday, so we wanted to give it a chance," Horton-Tucker said Saturday night. "We went 1-3-1 and 2-3 just to give it a different look. So it worked.”
The Jazz are playing with tremendous intensity, yes, but the cohesion being displayed is palpable. Executing the zone defense has been a big reason for the team's newfound chemistry, which has allowed young, heretofore unproven players to flourish, like Horton-Tucker, Agbaji, and even star rookie center Walker Kessler.
For the 10th time this season, Kessler blocked five shots in one game vs. the Kings. Once again, the rookie saved some of his biggest, high-impact plays for the clutch.
Ultimately, Utah smothered Sacramento in the fourth quarter, which is what spurred the team to victory. Playing with great tempo and improved communication, to go along with that defense, have made a huge difference.
“We were able to use our pace," Hardy said post-game. "It’s been a huge emphasis for us since the trade deadline to try to play faster. We fed off our defense. We did a good job of getting stops and it allowed us to get out and run.”
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