Slow it down: Jazz must force Warriors to play their brand of basketball

The Golden State Warriors enter their second-round series with the Utah Jazz with rested legs, having swept the Portland Trail Blazers out of the opening round of the NBA playoffs in convincing fashion. The Jazz, on the other hand, needed to go the distance against the Los Angeles Clippers before sending them packing in seven games with a victory Sunday.

You'd be hard pressed to find anyone willing to bet on Utah to pull off the highly-improbable upset in the Western Conference semifinals, which isn't necessarily a slight against them. The Warriors are just on such a tear at the moment, and if Kevin Durant returns to form following his calf injury, they may be unstoppable.

This is not to say that Quinn Snyder's group should just lay down and die, though. They're playing with house money, with nothing to lose in what's the franchise's first appearance this deep in the playoffs since 2010.

The last thing Jazz fans should hope for is this series turning into a shootout, because their side won't stand a chance against the Warriors' firepower. Utah needs to force Golden State to put on its brakes, and play a style befitting of them.

It may be their only chance of survival.

The Warriors are assassin-like moving the basketball down the floor, giving the opposition little time to think or set up as they bury long-range daggers in their eye at a fascinating rate. They're at their best when the tempo is nice and fast, because they're equipped at essentially every position to thrive under those circumstances.

Utah is more methodical in its approach, beating teams with a defense - albeit a worse one statistically than that of the Warriors - that's headed by one of the favorites to take home Defensive Player of the Year honors, Rudy Gobert.

We tend to see more half-court sets utilized in the postseason, when the game naturally slows down. Golden State, though, has actually had a stronger pace (number of possessions a team utilizes) through four games than they did during the regular season, while the Jazz remain near the bottom (13th of 16 teams).

Utah was also one of only two teams (Dallas Mavericks) this past season that averaged eight or more shot attempts per game that came during the last four seconds of the shot clock, leading the way with 8.6. In comparison, the Warriors put up the fewest during those stretches with 3.6, with their 16.4 attempts within the first six seconds of the clock ranking second overall behind the young guns in Phoenix.

The way Golden State and Utah formulate their offensive strategies is night and day from each other. One relies on shooting the lights out and getting up buckets in a hurry, while the other focuses on producing the best shot possible, as long it takes.

The Jazz have the personnel to get back in transition to contest shots, so even if Golden State turns on the burners, they should still be able to make them work for what they get.

We have yet to see what two fully healthy rosters can do in this matchup. Gordon Hayward, Derrick Favors, and George Hill were absent on Dec. 8, Hill and Favors remained out for the second meeting on Dec. 20, and the final game on April 10 didn't feature Hayward, Favors, or the Warriors' Klay Thompson.

Golden State hasn't played since April 24 in Rip City, and has been afforded the maximum amount of time to prepare, recuperate, and analyze the Jazz's strengths and weaknesses. If anything, they'll put more of an emphasis on moving the rock swiftly and efficiently to wear down a Utah unit that will have had just a lone full day of rest before Game 1 at Oracle Arena on Tuesday.

The blueprint for overcoming the Warriors is to either beat them at their own game, or throw them off completely by dragging them out of their comfort zone. The Jazz aren't going to emerge victorious in a straight-up scoring contest with little resistance.

The slower, the better.

Series schedule

(photo courtesy: Action Images)