NBA

Walker Kessler Was A Defensive Anchor For The Jazz Last Night, He’s The Only Player This Season To Have 3 Games With 7+ Blocks

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Zach Wolpin
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Zach Wolpin Sports Editor

Zach Wolpin is an NBA and NFL expert who's been betting on the league for over three years now. Wolpin has been a fan of the NBA and has been watching for a decade and a half. He covers the latest news and stories surrounding the league daily. His passion in life is watching sports and being able to share that through his sports writing. He has written about the NBA and other sports leagues through various media outlets over the years like Sir Charles In Charge, G-Men HQ, and TAP into South Plainfield. Before he became an NBA News Writer, Wolpin attended Montclair State University where he graduated in 2021. He studied Sports Media and Writing while in school.

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Sports Editor

Updated24 Feb 2023

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Lauri Marrkanen was dominated on offense for the Jazz last night while rookie center Walker Kessler was a defensive anchor. The Jazz and Thunder went to OT last night and Utah was able to walk away with a tough 120-119 victory. Kessler is averaging (2.1) blocks per game this season which is fifth in the NBA amongst all active players. He’s also the only player this season to have three games with at least seven blocks and no player has more than one. 

The Grizzlies drafted Kessler with the 22nd overall pick in last years draft, but was then traded on draft night to the Utah Jazz. He’s played in 58 of the 61 games so far for Utah this season and has been a rim-protector as well. Kessler blocked a layup attempt for the Thunder as time expired and sent the game to OT.

His offensive game has plenty of room to go and he’s been a high-level defender for the Jazz in his rookie season. With a 30-31 record at ninth in the West, Utah Sports Betting sites have the Jazz at (+40000) to win the Finals this season.

Walker Kessler is proving that he’s a top-level defender early in his career

With seven blocks vs the OKC Thunder last night, Kessler recorded his third game of the year with 7+ blocks. No other player in the league has done that more than once this season. Along with his seven blocks he had 18 rebounds and seven points.

He also knocked down his first three-pointer of the season last night which was a designed shot drawn up by head coach Will Hardy. Kessler now has 124 blocks this season which is fourth-most and only 15 blocks behind the league’s leader, Brook Lopez with 139 blocks.

His head coach had this to say about Walker’s potential to be a great player moving forward.

“I think Walker has the potential to be somebody that you build a defense around. He has shown really great progress this year.” – Will Hardy

Kessler sticks to his role and he does it well. The team is not asking him to be in Lauri Markkanen’s position last night where he had to score 43 points for the team to win. He was able to clean up the boards with 18 rebounds and was also a defensive gem for the team.