The Clippers and Jazz played the late west coast game last night, and most of the attention was on the Golden State and Sacramento. But the Jazz made it interesting behind 24 points and 17 boards from Derrick Favors. The fourth-year forward threw down a pretty nice dunk on DeAndre Jordan. But was it as good as Blake Griffin‘s slam on frenchman Rudy Gobert?
Favors just signed a four-year, $49 million maximum extension on his rookie deal to remain in Utah. The Jazz still have a bunch of cap space after securing the services of the 22-year-old out of Georgia Tech, and they’re likely to extend Gordon Hayward before the NBA’s Halloween deadline, too. But enough about contracts.
Favors slammed one down over DJ and — despite getting the extension largely for his defense — he was 10-for-17 from the field, and showed off a deft touch in the mid-range he hasn’t shown since getting drafted No. 3 overall in 2009. Favors’ offense is gravy for the Jazz at this point, and it’s a good sign of things to come. But, as ever, it’s still preseason. Sigh.
Griffin was a more pedestrian 5-for-11 from the field for 15 points and 6 boards, but he made Gobert basically fake the block so he wasn’t embarrassed as so many others have been when Blake takes to the air. Also, Griffin ran a fluid pick-and-roll with Chris Paul in order to get the dunk. Those two mesh really well now.
Who dunked it better?
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