Offense begins with D for Jazz

Jerry Sloan’s players, who are averaging a playoff-best 112 points and 51.8 percent shooting, sure sound an awful lot like their coach sometimes.

When asked about the key to their smooth-running offense, here were some of the Sloanesque answers that emphasized defense:

Carlos Boozer: “Our offense is efficient, but our defense is even better.”

Wesley Matthews: “Just executing, getting stops. When we get stops we’re a better offensive team.”

Deron Williams: “It’s a collective effort from everybody to help each other defensively, but then we want to make teams work on the defensive end themselves. …”

Which makes sense, really. Players are more likely to play well on both ends of the court if they’re committed on offense and defense.

Plus, the Jazz – despite having the reputation of being a rigid, half-court-oriented team – love to get out and run.

And it’s always been that way with Sloan’s system if you think about it. John Stockton and Karl Malone were at their best when they were scoring on fast breaks AND pick-and-rolls.

Adrian Dantley knows this, which is why he’s harped about his team’s transition defense against the Jazz.

So back to that Matthews quote, because he filled it out a bit to further punctuate his defense-leads-to-offense point:

“When we get stops we’re a better offensive team rather than just come down and beat you on one end of the court. When we can get stops on the other end of the court we’ve got people who can kick ahead and make plays, and now they’ve got to scramble and we get mismatches and then our offense works even better.”

Like coach, like players.