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Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert knows a thing or two about defense.
After all, the Frenchman — aptly nicknamed “The Stifle Tower” — is a two-time NBA Defensive “Player of the Year” (2018, 2019) and four-time NBA All-Defensive First Team.
But following Friday night's 117-114 edge-of-the-seat win against the growing Memphis Grizzlies (where he finished with 25 points on 11-for-14 shooting), Gobert made it clear: the Jazz sing best when elite guard Donovan “Spida” Mitchell exerts himself fully as a game-changing, two-way player.
From Salt Lake Tribune Jazz beat reporter Eric Walden:
Rudy Gobert, on Donovan Mitchell's contributions other than scoring: "I try to stay on his ass about defense, and the last four games, he's been defending at a high level. We need him to be a dominant defensive player for us to go where we want to go."
— tribjazz (@tribjazz) March 27, 2021
The four-year veteran and two-time NBA All-Star (2019-21) out of the University of Louisville is currently enjoying the best two-year offensive curve of his young career, notching a 110 offensive rating in 2019-20 and a 114 offensive rating in 2020-21. But in the same breath, his defensive ratings also sit at career highs over the last two seasons (111), and Gobert is naturally thinking defense first.
During these last four games, however, the NBA-best Jazz are 4-0 with wins over the Grizzlies, Brooklyn Nets, Chicago Bulls and Toronto Raptors — giving up just 102.3 points per game in the stretch. He's riding a six-game streak with at least one steal.
So where do the Utah Jazz want to go? As current leaders of the NBA, they'd like to visit “Titletown” — particularly after a tough first-round exit to the Denver Nuggets a year ago in Orlando's Disney Bubble. The Jazz haven't been the NBA Finals since back-to-back trips in 1996-97 and 1997-98 — famously rendered in Michael Jordan's “The Last Dance” on ESPN.
If Utah wants to end the drought this season, they'll have to likely push through some guard-heavy offenses in Golden State, both Los Angeles teams, Damian Lillard and the Trail Blazers, Devin Booker and the Phoenix Suns.
