DP22 Drops 23! And the Mammoth Are on Top!

Today was a busy one — the Jazz’s second preseason game at the Delta Center, plus the Mammoth’s third game of the road trip, in New Jersey. This is the kind of busy I’ll take every time.

Start with the Mammoth. It was a struggle, but they got it done 5-3. New Jersey’s attack has real speed and real skill, and I spent most of the night with my heart in my throat. Our top six moved the puck beautifully and came at them from all sorts of angles, while the bottom six worked and pressured from the first shift to the last. All four forward lines were good. Special teams were excellent too — the power play created chance after chance off some gorgeous passing. And seriously, how about this? Two for four again tonight, which puts us at 61.5% through four games. Top of the NHL, naturally. The penalty kill gave up its first goal of the season, and even that came 5-on-3 — at 5-on-4 they still haven’t been beaten. A 92.9% kill rate through four games is a ridiculous number. We also out-hit New Jersey 24-10 tonight. The work is showing up in the numbers.

Individually, Sheriff got his first goal of the season, which was also the third line’s first of the season. He’s been creating chances all along with that relentless work of his, and the results finally came. Congratulations! Schmaltzy is on a tear and scored again tonight — a goal in all four games, five on the season, and that’s top of the NHL. Kells and Trocheck got their first of the year as well. Sergy took a puck to the head late in the second and left the game, but not before putting up three assists and reaching 300 for his career, and he was named the game’s first star. Let’s hope the injury isn’t serious.

That puts the Mammoth at 3-1 and first in the Central, which is a brutal division. The teams around us have played fewer games, so they’ll pass us again soon enough — but just seeing Mammoth at the top of the standings feels pretty good.

Now I just want to see Cooley score!

And then the Jazz preseason. This was the first home game at the renovated Delta Center.

With Lauri and Nurk out, the starting five was Key, DP, Ace, JJJ and Hayes. I love that group. Key, DP and Ace — the future core three — out there together, and I couldn’t wait!
Naturally, what the fan base wanted to see was what DP would do after a rough first game.
I was in my DP jersey, parked in front of the screen. And yes, I’d already been to the shrine to pray this morning.
Denver again, same as the opener, but with Jamal Murray in the lineup this time. With him out there the Nuggets get so much better you wonder if it’s a different team.

Tip-off. Right from the start, DP looked settled. Maybe facing actual NBA players in the opener gave him just enough of a sense of the real intensity and speed to start adjusting to it.
Early on, Key found DP on an alley-oop that looked like a designed play, and the building went up.
Key is so steady. When he picked up foul trouble and went to the bench with about five minutes left in the first, DP took over as the primary handler. And he was good. Calm. He seemed to see the floor well. He didn’t run things like a rookie at all. The threes wouldn’t go in, though.

From the second quarter on, the pull-up jumper started going down at a high rate. He went after it more aggressively too, drawing and-ones off driving layups and pull-ups.
I’d been half expecting him to play the first half and then sit, but he came back out for the third. Thank you, Will!!
And at the end, the three that had refused to drop all night finally went in — and it looked good doing it.

He finished with a team-high 29 minutes, 23 points on 10-of-18, three rebounds, three assists and two turnovers. A wonderful night. Man, that feels good.

I hate to put a damper on a night like that, but the thing that’s bothered me since his college days hasn’t really changed: the jump shot. He looks like he’s shooting on the way up, the release point is a little low, and he doesn’t seem to finish his follow-through. His body tends to drift sideways too, and there’s a rotation in it — the three he hit at the end was a good example of that — and I don’t think the shot stabilizes until that gets cleaned up.
Tonight, every jumper he made except that last three was a pull-up. When DP is playing the two, he’s going to get a lot of catch-and-shoot looks, so I’m hoping that’s the accuracy he works on.

All that said, the thing that makes me happiest is that whenever he’s on the floor he’s trying to contribute to everything. Every knock on him before the draft looks like the exact opposite to me. There is nothing selfish about him at all. He shows real appetite on defense and on the glass. Which is exactly what Ace did last year.

As for everyone else: JJJ and Key were both in foul trouble so their minutes were short, but the substance was excellent. Ace was good too, I thought. The shooting accuracy still isn’t there, but his contributions on the glass and on defense are significant. He also put the ball on the floor a lot tonight. It looks pretty promising, but he still stops himself halfway through, and I want him to go at it harder even if it means mistakes. You’re one of my guys too, Ace!!
Jaxson Hayes showed off his athleticism and gave us plenty to enjoy — offensive rebounds, blocks, dunks off the lob. The block on Jokic’s floater had me yelling “whoa! are you kidding me!” He’s a completely different type from Nurk, so I imagine they’ll use them situationally. With Zay, the shooting accuracy goes without saying, but despite the assist numbers I still think his half-court playmaking needs a lot of work. He and DP don’t look in sync yet, either. He has value as someone who can change the tempo of a game — but what are the Jazz going to do with him?

There must be plenty of teams who’d want a player like him, and since we aren’t a run-and-gun team, I’d love to know what the front office sees as his long-term role here.

I’ll stop there for today.
The Mammoth won a good game, DP was outstanding — the best kind of day.
Jazz, Mammoth, all of you: thank you for a perfect day!