As I have written before, the final peak of the Jazz in recent years was the 06-07 season led by Sloan, when they started with 12 wins and 1 loss, and beat yao mai rockets and black eight warriors in the playoffs, only to lose to the old hot Spurs in the West final.
Fast forward 15 years, and they have never surpassed or tied this record again.
Since building on the mitchell-gobert pair of inside and outside cores, they are one of the most stable teams in the league.
In the last three seasons they have won a total of 145 regular season games, and the only players in the league are the Bucks and Suns.
But every year in the playoffs, they almost always get out of the game, ending the season in a gray and slippery way.
In 18-19 years, he was eliminated by the Rockets 4-1 consecutively, and Gobert was dizzy by Paul's repeated "military training".
In the summer of 19, Bojan and Conley were introduced consecutively, and before the game, they were once considered to be the second team in the West after the Clippers and Lakers, but stumbled in the regular season. In the first round of the playoffs, it was overturned by the Nuggets with a 3-1 lead. (Bojan did not appear)
The 20-21 season was the Jazz's most promising year.
After last season's failures, their run-in was better, with Mitchell playing his career best, Clarkson taking down the best sixth man, Gobert slashing another DPOY, and the team's three-pointers raining down. The Jazz entered the playoffs with a league-first record of 52 wins and 20 losses.
They swept the Grizzlies in the first round, but the Western Conference semifinals led 2-0, were reversed by the Clippers in four consecutive cities, and the opponent lost Leonard in the last two games.
But the core of the team, Mitchell, played a good game.
Shooting 16-of-30 in the first game, he had 45 points, 3 rebounds and 5 assists.
Shooting 15-of-29 in the second game, he had 37 points, 3 rebounds and 4 assists.
Even in the sixth game that was eliminated, he still scored 39 points, except for the fifth game with "only" 21 points, Mitchell was able to take at least 30 points on the Clippers every game.
As a fan who followed the Clippers throughout the playoffs last year, regardless of the development prospects and the performance of the entire career, the home guard who met the opponent in the first three rounds gave the impression that Doncic > Mitchell > Booker.
Especially in the first two matches of the semi-finals, Mitchell was simply unstoppable. (The next few games don't feel like this, but it's definitely not a pull-over)
But as another core, Gobert's side is more confused.
Although you are the best defensive player, the Clippers can't play as long as they put up a five-small lineup, as if they are out of the system of the whole team. Attack, no shot; defend, can't keep up. G5 was smashed by Mann in the final moments, losing face; G6 was even more outrageous in the second half, and the Clippers could shoot three points against his defense — even Beverley threw in two.
Can the best defensive player still give the opposite side a buff? This is also the first time that Gobert has suffered a serious crisis of confidence.
By this year, the Jazz couldn't even beat the Lone Ranger without Doncic.
Brunson crossed the willows on their inside line and gave and demanded; Kleber fired a thousand arrows from outside the three-point line. Jazz goes into the rhythm of a lone ranger as he fights.
Although both sides have denied it, the contradiction between Mitchell and Gobert, the core of the inner and outer lines, is well known.
As the "two hundred million tianzun" who has just renewed the big contract, the best defensive player in three years, the best center in the league, and the real cornerstone of the Jazz.
Gobert's status in the team is unbelievably humble.
In six games against the Lone Ranger, he made just 33 shots, no. 6 on the team, and even worse than blue-collar coolie Reus O'Neal, even after he grabbed 22 rebounds in the frontcourt.
The Jazz crowd seemed to really just use him as a tool that would only defend and grab rebounds, completely disregarding how much of a misalignment advantage he had under the basket against a small lineup.
So later the Lone Rangers saw this, and in the second half of Game 6 Kidd even released a super small lineup of Doncic (2m 01) - Finney Smith (2m 01) - Bullock (1m 98) - Dinwiddie (1m 96) - Bronson (1m 85).
You're not going to punish me with Gobert anyway, so I'll beat you to death with a ball, right?
The Mavericks hit the Jazz 57-43 in the second half, while Gobert only made three shots, four free throws, and scored eight points.
So the Lone Ranger stepped on the jazz's shoulders and entered the second round of the playoffs again after eleven years, and Salt Lake City once again tasted defeat.
Sir, it's presumably going to be rebuilt, Gobert, presumably finally leaving.