Joe Harris was the primary victim when the Brooklyn Nets stopped moving the ball offensively, because his entire offensive game is predicated on movement and getting to open spots on the floor.
With the ball not being delivered, his effectiveness was greatly reduced.
He still had an impact on the game defensively, doing a nice job against Utah sharpshooter Joe Ingles, holding him to 1-of-4 shooting from long range and seven points — around half Ingles’ average coming in.
So Harris may have won the individual battle of the Joes on Wednesday, but the Nets lack of ball movement rendered Harris a fairly ordinary Joe against the Jazz.
Let’s just get this out of the way: Rondae Hollis-Jefferson is an outstanding defensive player, but you are kidding yourself if you think matching him up with Rudy Gobert — by design — is ever going to end well.
RHJ spent much of his night dealing with Donovan Mitchell and when the second-year wing for the Jazz got going in the fourth quarter, there was little Hollis-Jefferson could do to stop it. Utah ran a lot of high pick-and-roll with Mitchell and Gobert in the fourth.
RHJ had trouble getting over Gobert’s screens and Jarrett Allen had difficulty deciding where to go and when to switch.
Offensively, Hollis-Jefferson did some damage on the glass and made some hard runs to the rack, but also displayed his tendency to get out of control with nowhere to go with the basketball. Not a terrible performance, but not his best, either.