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Maybe Kemba Walker should bring some thank-you cards with him when he heads to the arena Wednesday night. The Charlotte Hornets guard was just named the Eastern Conference's player of the week — and the Utah Jazz provided some terrific résumé padding.
A week ago in Charlotte, Walker exploded for 52 points in a double-overtime win against Utah. He opened up his account by losing Jazz rookie Raul Neto, pulling up in the pick-and-roll and bouncing in a free throw-line jumper. Then he knocked down back-to-back 3-pointers. And as soon as Trey Burke replaced Neto on the floor, Walker ran the Jazzman into a screen and pulled up for his third straight make from deep.
"He got going from the beginning of the game," Burke said after that loss in Charlotte. "His first two or three shots, he made, and that gives you confidence as a player."
With that performance, Walker joined an exclusive club of 50-point scorers; Stephen Curry, James Harden, Jimmy Butler and DeMarcus Cousins are the only other players to have broken that barrier this season. Walker also joined a slightly less exclusive club: point guards who have burned the Jazz.
All-Stars Curry and Russell Westbrook have done it to just about everyone. And perhaps Damian Lillard's 56 combined points in two meetings with Utah shouldn't come as much of a surprise.
But there have been big games from others, too. Journeyman Ish Smith scored 22 and nearly led last-place Philly to an upset in Salt Lake City last month. A 33-year-old Mo Williams dropped 29 on the Jazz in Cleveland and after they had faced Deron Williams in Dallas, Jazz coach Quin Snyder said the 10-year veteran looked like an All-Star again. At least 16 times, a point guard has gone for 20 points or more against the Jazz, most recently on Monday night when Detroit's Reggie Jackson's game-high 29 (on 12-of-19 shooting) sank them at home.
While Snyder has praised the efforts of Burke and Neto throughout the year, the team's best bet at slowing down opposing point guards, Danté Exum, is still moving gingerly on a surgically repaired knee. So the Jazz are left searching for other answers.
"That's part of where defensively last year we made some real strides," Snyder said, assessing how his team has handled guarding points this season. "Danté's got size. We're defending that position with Trey and Raul and they're working their tails off but they're both about 6-1. Sometimes there's a reality associated with that, particularly with a bigger point guard or with Kemba Walker, a guy that's in the gap. It's just harder to get a really effective contest on those jumpers."
Nobody has burned the this year Jazz worse than Walker. The small-but-speedy point guard knocked down nearly half of his 33 attempts and earned 15 free throws to hold off the Jazz in two overtimes last Monday.
"He's unbelievable," Hornets coach Steve Clifford said after the game. "He hit his threes against the under [ball-screen] early... He was stepping behind the high pick and hitting threes and then that opens everything up. He's so good with his set-ups and so fast, so when you have to go over the top it's hard to keep him out of the paint."
By the time Walker was up to 17, Hornets forward and former Jazzman Marvin Williams said he told his point guard he was going to get to 50. Utah couldn't slow him down.
"We were sagging off too much and he stepped up and hit the three," Jazz forward Gordon Hayward said. "He's a quick, shifty, little guy and he can get into the paint pretty easily, so we were trying to stay off him a certain length and he just buried the three-ball. That's probably the biggest issue, we weren't up all the way."
Asked to assess how his team has defended point guards overall this season, Hayward said it has been a collective failure when there have been problems.
"We've had some breakdowns for sure," he said. "… But it's not just on our point guards who are guarding them. It's on our weak-side wings shifting, it's on our bigs making sure we're up so that when guys are shooters they can't just come off the screen and shoot."
Detroit's Jackson already exploited their deficiencies this week. And Snyder expected similar looks from Walker and the Hornets on Wednesday.
"They'll do some of the same things Detroit did: pick and roll, spacing the floor with shooting bigs," Snyder said. "We guarded the pick-and-roll pretty good off the ball. On the point of attack, we've still got to be better. … Guys that are guarding the ball have to be a little better. It's that simple."
Twitter: @tribjazz —
Jazz vs. Hornets
P At Vivint Smart Home Arena
Tipoff • Wednesday, 7 p.m.
TV • ROOT
Radio • 1280 AM, 97.5 FM
Records • Jazz 19-25; Hornets 22-23
About the Jazz • With Derrick Favors' return this week after a monthlong absence, the Jazz's core is inching closer to full strength. … Gordon Hayward scored 36 points in last week's loss at Charlotte. He's averaging better than 20 points per game in January. … Rookie point guard Raul Neto is out after suffering a concussion Monday.
About the Hornets • Have won four of their past five games, with three of those victories coming in overtime, including two double-overtime wins. … Kemba Walker scored a franchise-high 52 points against the Jazz last week in Charlotte. … Nicolas Batum, Rudy Gobert's French national teammate, is enjoying a career season with the Hornets.