How the Utah Jazz earned their statement win over the Denver Nuggets

What seemed to be a lost seasonfor the Utah Jazz has suddenly turned around due to the team'srecent success, winning 15 of their last 21 games.

After starting just 7-16, theJazz have since gone 11-4 and are now in contention for one of theWestern Conference's play-in spots. They’ve had an incredible week thus far, withwins over the contending Philadelphia 76ers, Milwaukee Bucks andDenver Nuggets.

The win over thedefending-champion Nuggets proved that the Jazz can hang with anyteam on any given night. Denver was 18-0 against sub-.500 teams enteringthe game, but Utah stained their erstwhile unblemishedslate.

How did the Jazz do it? Let'stake a look at some of the things they did to upend theNuggets.

The Jazz stretched the floor

With John Collins starting atcenter instead of Walker Kessler, Utah's game plan was to pullNikola Jokic from the paint. Jokic, who’s usually a drop-big ondefense, almost always stays near the shaded area in pick-and-rollactions. Utah tried to take advantage of this early by hunting outthrees and exploiting the point-of-attack defenses of Jamal Murrayand Michael Porter Jr. Four of their first five attempts werethree-pointers and they connected on two to jump out to an earlylead.

Denver tried to counter byrunning zone, leaving Collins open a couple of times in the firstquarter. However, Collins made them pay by hitting two threes, asJokic was more than content to leave him open for threes. Thisallowed the Jazz to get rolling even more and gave them the freedomto attack the basket and get downhill.

Another possession in the zonefound Reggie Jackson and Jokic in a miscommunication, leading toJordan Clarkson drilling an easy 10-foot jumper. When the Nuggetstried to switch up their defense back to a man-to-man, the Jazzfound the answer with some off-ball movement and timely cuts to therim. Overall, it was an offensive clinic that caught the defendingchamps off guard.

The Jazz mixed their coverages on Jokic and gave himdifferent looks on defense

You can't entirely stop anall-world talent like Nikola Jokic, you could only hope to containhim, which is still really tough considering how talented he is andhis ability to get his teammates involved.

Although he still put up amonstrous stat line of 27 points, 11 rebounds and 6 assists on anabsurd 8-of-9 shooting from the field, what the Jazz and Will Hardydid was mix-up coverages on him. They showed multiple defensivelooks each time down, which partly confused Jokic as he committed 6turnovers in the game.

Sometimes, it was singlecoverage; other times, they sent doubles at him. Three differentplayers — Lauri Markannen, Collins and Kessler — each took turnsguarding him and all three provided different looks on the Joker.Markannen used his strength, Collins had his quickness and quickhands, while Kessler provided verticality with his 7-foot-1frame.

The Jazz also sent differentdoubles at Jokic, sometimes crowding him in the paint with earlydouble-teams, breaking up his low-post attacks with guards doublinghim, and sending late doubles with another big or using a helpweakside defender to try to affect him as he attempted ashot.

All of these defensive coverageswere designed to make Jokic feel uncomfortable with differentstyles thrown at him, and the Jazz were successful at that withthis blowout win.

Will Hardy figured out the rotations and had the Jazzplaying with confidence

Although their defense is stillsuspect, the Jazz’s offense has been nothing but spectacular. Thiscan be attributed to head coach Will Hardy figuring out hisrotation and which players synergize well together. This impressiverun over their last 20 games started when Hardy made Kris Dunn,Collin Sexton, Simone Fontecchio, Lauri Markannen and John Collinsthe starting five. Off the bench, Jordan Clarkson and Kelly Olynykprovide stability as veterans while second-year guys Walker Kesslerand Ochai Agbaji help out on defense with their length andtenacity.

Utah’s offense was on fulldisplay against Denver, picking them apart with set plays and offof read-and-react actions. Although the Nuggets were coming off twodays of rest and just an hour flight, the Jazz capitalized on theirmomentum and pounced right from the start.

Markannen has picked up rightwhere he left off in last season’s All-Star campaign, maintaininghis shooting and scoring while improving his ball-handling thisseason. He’s much better off the dribble now, which makes him oneof the most coveted (if not most coveted) trade targets as the Feb.8 deadline approaches.

Clarkson has also learned tomove the ball more since being back to his regular sixth man rolewhile continuing to score the ball effectively, and it has producedgood results.

Dunn and Sexton allow the Jazzto play with pace and energy on both sides of the floor and theirefforts are infectious.

Despite all of the trade rumorsswirling around this team and rival teams trying to pry theirplayers away, GM Danny Ainge and coach Will Hardy deserve creditfor helping the Jazz build good habits and play the right way,which has resulted in beautiful basketball allaround.