Post#47 » by Whole Truth » Mon May 24, 2021 12:12 pm
I'm laughing so hard reading comments from Raptor fans that thought Jonas was the problem especially vs the Cavs, Unlike Gasol, Jonas never had the playoff opportunity to play with Kawhi's & Greens perimeter defense.. he played all his minutes with Derozan.
That Cavs team had no post defense but great 3pt shooting. This Jazz team has great post defense & great 3pt shooting, 4 of their starters can light you up from 3. This is supposed to be the worse possible team for Jonas to face defensively.
Jonas had to play 39 mins because he was the only Memphis big last night able to contain the Jazz front court, even when he banged his right knee & slowed down a bit 3rd Q. Snyder went as far to sub Gobert off of him to play him against the bench where they went on their biggest run of the game to put Memphis down 13 where Jonas being subbed back in led to their 17-3 answer to go into the half up 6.
He put up 15/12/3/2 & led the starters with a +15, where only Bane was a + off the bench with +29 (great showing from him). They still hating because these games are going to show Raptors could have won with Jonas.
What was the difference in Jonas current success ? Grizz perimeter defense & ability to contain their 3pt shooters.. Where you guessed it, Jonas used to play with Derozan's perimeter defense. Now don't feel I'm putting it all on Derozan, Jonas has his defensive short comings but it was the defensive pairing that led to Jonas being the scape goat for those losses.
Snyder's half time interview even talked about how their shooters weren't getting many open looks but they need to keep taking them because that's who they are, which meshed with what I was seeing.. I'd like to see that stat on how much their shooters were open apposed to contested.
With Mitchell out, Jazz could play better but here's the thing, Memphis can too.. forget that the bench only had less than a quarter of their overall points & that Jenkins let Snyder get a better matchup with Gobert which led to a 16-2 run ... The young team is growing in confidence, experience & their 2nd most talented player was a team high -19. Jazz fans say their 3's weren't falling, I say Memphis perimeter players Bane included, did a good job contesting them.
3J shows up for this series at any point, it's over for the Jazz. That steal & 3 was a 5pt swing in one sequence from him in an otherwise weak showing. If he comes to play... Shame he only got 11 games to get up to speed. Hope he's putting in work because IMO, he will be the X factor vs the Jazz. They can bring DM back, 3J has yet to show up & I think he will. He's going to get up to speed & get comfortable, I just hope it's sooner than later.
Lets go 3J.