Three thoughts on the Utah Jazz’s 113-104 win over the Dallas Mavericks from Salt Lake Tribune Jazz beat writer Andy Larsen.
Ah, good old pick and roll. The play perfected by John Stockton and Karl Malone was almost synonymous with Jazz basketball until the league really adopted it wholesale in this millennium. Now, everyone runs pick and roll, and while it’s certainly not the only component of a good offense, it might be the biggest.
While the play has become a bigger focus of the league, it’s also become harder to run. If you just walk up the floor and throw a blah high pick and roll at a set defense, that defense is going to have a lot of success: everyone practices stopping the pick and roll in their base defensive scenarios.