Every week during the regular season begins here at SCH with the Salt City Seven, a septet of recurring features that let us relive the biggest moments, key performances and hot issues in Jazzland from various angles. Check in every week for the quotes, stats, plays and performances that tell the stories from the last 168 hours in the world of the Jazz.
Early in the fourth quarter against Milwaukee, the ball swung toward Ace Bailey on the second side. He caught using the "hop" move that shooters use to get their shot off quickly, but opened his legs slightly on the hop to preserve the option to drive. So when the defender closed hard to the baseline side, Bailey used that to accelerate toward the middle of the floor. Three defenders collapsed around him, but he still got to a clean 15-footer from the left elbow.
On the very next play, he spun and faked a drive to draw a stunt from a help defender so he could set up an Elijah Harkless attempt[fn]He missed, but that's beside the point.[/fn]. Soon after, he brought the ball up and orchestrated a switch to get a bigger, slower defender switched onto him before he fired a pull-up three himself.
Bailey is one of several players who have seen not just an uptick in minutes, but a completely new role as the 21-50 Jazz play out the string. They're officially eliminated from playoff contention now, which gives them even more reason to lean hard into development and evaluation mode with their final 11 games. These games are designed for young and seldom-used players who have spent most of the year pining for a chance to show they can do more. It's opportunity season.
For Bailey, that has meant a chance to operate at the center of the Jazz's universe on offense. For others, it has meant an opportunity to get NBA minutes at all.
The result has been a lot of career nights up and down Utah's available roster. There have been so many mentions lately of career-best performances that I wanted to see just how many players have established new highs in the five main counting stat areas this season, and more specifically, in March's 11 games.
Eleven Jazz players have set or tied at least one career-high mark in the month of March, and that's just considering the five main counting stats[fn]We could also talk about career highs in minutes, FG attempts, rate stats, etc., but these raw figures probably mean more as far as career highs go.[/fn]. In all, nearly every current Jazzman has set or tied a personal best in something this season.
Some players have set multiple career bests in the same stat, like Cody Williams, whose 19 points in Portland were a high water mark until precisely one game later when he got 34. Harkless topped his own personal zenith when he scored 14, then promptly eclipsed that with games of 16 and (this past week) 23. Then there's Kennedy Chandler, who merely showed up on the scene to find out the Jazz needed 37 minutes worth of ball handling from him, which almost by default led him into 19 points.
Fellow 10-day signee Bez Mbeng and the now-departed Andersson Garcia are rookies, meaning everything they accomplished statistically this month was a first-time deal. Same goes for Blake Hinson who debuted on his two-way contract last month.
But these extended opportunities have been most useful for the likes of Bailey and Williams, who have been getting rotation minutes throughout the season, but haven't had this level of responsibility yet. Even Harkless has been legitimately running the point on some possessions, something he's never really been asked to do before.
And Bailey... just wow. As recently as a couple of weeks ago, Jazz bench boss Will Hardy was still talking about how they're keeping the rookie's decision-making pretty simple and binary. By necessity, that's over now. The Jazz are simply letting him create, read, improvise. His rookie year had already been filled with great moments and hints of potential, but these last few games especially have provided a more real glimpse of where he could be headed.
And if you don't believe me, here's a teammate of his who's not afraid to say out loud what some of us are thinking....
"It's definitely an honor and a blessing to be around somebody so talented, (in the) early stages of his career. It's going to be one of those things you tell your kids about when he's fully in his prime, absolutely killing, or possibly a Hall of Famer, which is really a possibility. It's just fun to be around the early stages."
- Hinson, to SEG Media's Lauren Green, after Bailey's 33-point explosion
This quote from the postgame coverage kind of got lost in the shuffle of all of the celebratory chatter after a fun win. But it shouldn't have. Hinson realizes what we're all seeing: the start of a career that could be pretty special..
Seven of Bailey's top seven usage games have come since the All-Star break, but even that stat doesn't adequately describe just how he's doing it or why that's so meaningful. His true shooting over that same span is still decent at 55.5%[fn]59.5% since the start of March[/fn], too. It's rare for rookies to look this comfortable as a main scoring threat, and as covered above, Bailey's shot diet is increasingly made up of self-generated looks and off-the-bounce stuff.
Watch the eyes of Jazz players when they flash to the bench after a Bailey score. They seem to all realize what Hinson said out loud: that the talent is just starting to ooze out of this kid. It's suddenly not crazy to wonder out loud if Bailey, who will be 20 next season, could be one of the most valuable Jazzmen as they attempt to ratchet up the competitive stakes.
(Honorable mention for best quote of the week was when Elijah Harkless matter-of-factly told David Locke that his goal is to become "the best undrafted player ever.")
1-10
The Jazz are 1-10 when they allow 60 or more paint points, as they did against the supersized Minnesota Timberwolves last Wednesday. All 11 Jazz players who played had a negative plus-minus, and the Jazz lost the paint battle (-12) as well as free throw points (-7) and points from behind the arc (-15).
64.0%
Of Utah's 240 total player minutes against Milwaukee, 153.7 went to 2-way or 10-day signees. That includes Garcia who played every single second. The Jazz never had a moment in the game when fewer than two such players were on the court.
+32
More on the Bucks game: that was the biggest win of the year for the Jazz, and tied for the largest lead held at any point, as the Jazz were up by 37 in this one as in the
18.8%
For the season, the Jazz are a below-average turnover forcing defense, with just 14.0% of opponent possessions ending in miscues (19th in the league). But suddenly over the last five games, they have been frustrating their foes to the tune of an 18.8% turnover rating, best in the league over that span.
25+5
Bailey joined Victor Wembanyama, Karl-Anthony Towns and Kevin Durant as the only players in the last two decades to record 25+ points and 5+ blocks in a game as a rookie. He's the only Jazz rookie to accomplish it ever.
Whenever I see the same thing happen repeatedly, it makes me want to go back and look at the underlying Xs and Os. Like when John Konchar scored twice on almost identical backdoor cuts in the third quarter on Saturday:
The first one was clearly engineered for this outcome. The Jazz run a bunch of stuff having a ball handler come through staggered screens out of the corner, only here because the Sixers are in a zone, the Jazz have Mbeng change his route and cut in between the two screens because it will force the 2-3 zone to react to him. Adem Bona comes up and now there's no rim protector, so Konchar goes for it. Mbeng's cut to what was the weak side now changes the Sixers' help logic, and that gets Quentin Grimes' momentum going the wrong way. Which is why play designers love to tug the defense from side to side.
But to my surprise on a rewatch, the second one wasn't actually set up the same way at all.
The Sixers are in man-to-man defense now, except that Trendon Watford is up high to prevent the little off-ball action and instead kind of spaces out. Mbeng appears to recognize here that the same principle applies even though it's NOT a stagger. He changes direction behind Watford, causing a lot of attention to be pulled to the middle of the floor. The Sixers have now parked Bona on Konchar, as a lot of teams lately put their big on a less proven shooter so he's free to wander. And he's so concerned with deciding whether to help on Mbeng that Konchar against sneaks right behind.
It was also one of those repeat actions that set up perhaps the game's most electrifying highlight.
That first play is so simple it's almost boring: a corner pindown for Bailey that then basically flows right into elbow pick-and-roll action with Kyle Filipowski. Plays like that happen a couple dozen times in every Jazz game, though the outcome might vary because it's read-based.
It's precisely because it's so common that the reverse jam happens[fn]This play actually happens a possession earlier, I realized after clipping this way.[/fn]. Because these corner pindowns are such a staple in the Jazz offense, Bailey's defender is already mentally skipping ahead to thinking about fighting through the screen and/or executing the switch. Bailey jukes that way just enough to make Marjon Beauchamp grow roots, and then he uses that incredibly long stride to gain a ton of separation with his first 1.5 steps. And just a great pass by Flip to lead Bailey to the rim.
One win and two consolation awards for the Jazz this past week:
Jazz 128, Bucks 96: Ace Bailey. Williams had a superb night and might have been slightly more valuable when it really mattered. Nineteen of his 23 came during an 8-for-10 first half when the game was still competitive. But also... c'mon. We're not going to ignore 33-9-4 from Utah's prize rookie just because Williams was slightly more efficient. In a way, Bailey's 27 field goal attempts are part of why this one was such an important Ace game from a long-term view. He was attacking at will: pull-up threes, finding the midrange, showing body control in the lane, "iso"-ing guys, attacking matchups... it was a fascinating display of skill. Harkless deserves credit for 23 points and 10 assists (both career highs), Garcia played all 48 minutes[fn]In perhaps his Jazz finale?[/fn] and Hinson again topped his career-best with 14.
Strong in defeat:
- Jazz 111, Wolves 147: Brice Sensabaugh. On a night when not a lot of guys had it going, Sensabaugh was unstoppable with 41 points. Only two other Jazzmen even hit double figures: Bailey with 17 and Collier with 14.
- Jazz 116, Sixers 126: Ace Bailey. We could have easily spread the love by giving Chandler some recognition for having the first ever Jazz debut with 19+ points, 4+ boards and 4+ assists. But it would feel a little reachy to recognize his 19-5-4 night when Bailey had, oh, just 25-7-4 and set a career high with 5 blocks. He's just the fourth player in the last 20 NBA seasons[fn]Joining Wemby, KAT and KD.[/fn] to record 25+ points and 5+ blocks in a game as a rookie, and also had some oh-so-memorable highlights. Mbeng had 13-6-7 to earn himself an extended stay, and Harkless had five steals.
Utah wraps up its home slate against Eastern Conference opponents, and then heads out for a quick 2-game trip.
Monday 3/23 vs. Raptors: A Sunday loss in Phoenix dropped the Raptors to 7-8 since the All-Star break, and doesn't help them in their quest to keep red-hot Atlanta behind them in the race for #5 in the East. Still, it's hard not to feel like the Raps are playing with house money; their next win will be the 40th, meaning they have 12 chances left to surpass their Vegas preseason over/under of 39.5. Brandon Ingram (22-6-4 averages, rounded) and Scottie Barnes (19-8-5) were both 2026 All-Stars.
Wednesday 3/25 vs. Wizards: This game marks the end of Utah's Eastern Conference slate. The Wiz are barely a basketball team at this point: they've lost 16 straight and had NINE guys listed as out when they lost in New York on Sunday. Trae Young has a glorious 5-game debut for his new team — 15ppg, 43% on threes, all losses — before he got shut down with no clear timetable.
Friday 3/27 @ Nuggets. The Jazz have faced their division rivals just twice this year (both losses), and will complete the season series with games in Denver and SLC just five days apart. Denver has dealt with a crazy revolving door of injuries and somehow still finds itself just 2.5 games out of third place. They finally got all their main guys back for a win over Portland, but they face the Jazz at the end of a 4-games-in-6-nights stretch. Nikola Jokic remains a silly human, leading the league in both assists and rebounds per game while averaging 28 points.
Saturday 3/28 @ Suns. Phoenix has been one of the nice surprise stories of the season, even if it seems at this point that they're destined for the play-in. A 4.5-game gap separates them from the Denver/Houston/Minny trio, the result of a 5-game skid they finally snapped on Sunday. Multiple wings have been missing time, like second-leading scorer Dillon Brooks and a pair of Jazz alumni in Royce O'Neale and Grayson Allen. That has certainly impacted them on the perimeter, where for the season they make the fourth most threes per game on one end, and limit their opponents to the lowest outside percentage on the other.
As is our tradition at this time of year, let's check to see which Jazzmen's alma maters are still alive in the NCAA Tournament.
- Lauri Markkanen's Arizona is a #1 seed and still has a shot at cutting down the nets after beating Long Island and USU.
- Filipowski's Duke is a #1 seed and punched its ticket to the Sweet 16 by beating Siena and TCU.
- Jaren Jackson Jr.'s Michigan State is a #3 seed and remains alive after beating North Dakota State and Louisville.
- Hinson went to three schools, but only one made the tournament: #2 Iowa State, which will face off against #6 Tennessee, the alma mater of new Jazzman Chandler.
Other guys' schools had or have some type of postseason, but are no longer in the Big Dance, as it were:
- Svi Mykhailiuk's #4 Kansas got past Cal Baptist but then got upset by St. John's, denying them a shot at Flip's Blue Devils.
- Kevin Love's UCLA is a #7 seed and would have faced JJJ's Michigan State if they had won on Sunday night, but UConn had other ideas.
- Tshiebwe's Kentucky, a #7 seed, was the latest victim of Hinson's Iowa State. The big man's other school, West Virginia, didn't get a tournament invite.
- Sensabaugh's Ohio State was a #8 seed, but lost in the first round to TCU.
- Walker Kessler's UNC was upset as a #6 seed by VCU, although Auburn is still alive as a #1 seed in the NIT
- Harkless' CS-Northridge, Oklahoma are not in either tournament this year, and UNLV just got knocked out of the NIT by Tulsa.
- Mbeng's Yale lost in first round of NIT.
Keyonte George's Baylor, Cody Williams' Colorado, Konchar's Purdue Fort Wayne, Bailey's Rutgers and Isaiah Collier's USC all missed both tournaments. Jusuf Nurkic didn't play college ball.
