Utah Jazz Are Just 12 Minutes Per Game Short Of Greatness

By Jared Woodcox | Nov 23, 2015

The Utah Jazz have the look of a playoff team, but are 12 MPG shy of reaching their full potential.

It’s no secret that the Utah Jazz’s schedule so far this season has been absolutely brutal. Not only were they the last team in the league to play a game at home, but eight of their first 10 contests were on the road; they won’t play in consecutive home games until over a month into the season.

That has meant lots of travel and little time for recovery, which can certainly lead to considerable fatigue and make it difficult for a team to find its rhythm.

Yet despite the tough schedule, the 6-6 Jazz have managed to play surprisingly well and for stretches of games have looked absolutely dominant. In fact, Utah tends to play great basketball just about every night, but unfortunately it’s usually for about 36 minutes as opposed to the full 48.

The recurring problem is the occasional quarter that for one reason or another seems to get away from them. In several games this season, one lackluster stretch has often been the team’s downfall as they’ve either gone into an early funk or ran out of gas late in the game.

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Friday’s game against the Dallas Mavericks is a perfect example. The Jazz started out strong, closing out the first quarter up 26-21 and even extended the lead into the second quarter to go up 32-26. From there, the Jazz completely fell apart.

Former Jazzman Deron Williams and the Mavs stormed through the second quarter with a 30-11 run that would ultimately prove fatal for the Jazz. Although Utah certainly battled back and played phenomenally in the second half, the hole they had dug themselves into was already too deep.

And therein lies a major problem the Jazz have faced so far this season. If you erase that horrible 12 minutes of the second quarter where the Mavs outscored the Jazz 35-17, Utah actually outscored Dallas the rest of the game by nine points.

Even in Utah’s win at home against the Toronto Raptors in the previous contest, the Jazz put up an atrocious second quarter in which they were outscored 26-18. The defense stepped up in the third as Utah held the Raptors to just 19 points, but the Jazz offense continued to struggle, putting up just 17 points of its own.

Fortunately for the Jazz, the team was able to step up and rally in the fourth quarter to outscore the Raptors by nine en route to a four-point victory.

Yet the fourth quarter rallies haven’t been the norm for the Jazz. In fact, in some instances this season (and many last season) the fourth quarter itself has been Utah’s bad 12 minutes. In the game earlier in the month against the Cleveland Cavaliers, the Jazz were tied heading into the fourth quarter after playing a relatively solid game through three quarters.

In the end, Utah was downed by LeBron James and the Cavs. Although the Jazz were only outscored by four points in that quarter, they had built up a nine-point lead before absolutely collapsing down the stretch. The inability to string together 12 solid minutes in the final quarter cost them the game.

Nevertheless, it should be noted that basketball by nature is a game of runs. Even the perfect 15-0 Golden State Warriors have had a number of dismal quarters this season. They’ve had to rally back several times–against the Brooklyn Nets and Los Angeles Clippers, for example–to capture wins.

If the undefeated, defending champion Warriors struggle to put together a complete 48-minute game at times, then it’s a tall order to expect the same of the young Jazz squad. While by no means is perfection the goal in sight, the Jazz will need to figure out a way to minimize their scoring droughts and lapses in play.

As they learn to get a better handle on damage control and eventually turn quarter collapses into, say, three or four-minute collapses from which they can recover, it will be a huge step forward.

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The buzz word with the Jazz used to be “potential.” It seemed that Jazz fans and the media were always talking about the untapped potential that this team had and how everyone needed to be patient as the players worked to reach that potential. With the progress this team has made, it seems that the time has passed to be waiting on potential.

Now the buzz word to wait on has to be “consistency.” It’s encouraging to see that the Jazz have progressed and are reaching their vast potential, but now they have to be able to do so consistently.

That consistency applies on a team and individual level. On a team level, the Jazz need to work to stay focused throughout the game and minimize the stretches of poor play. Individually, the Jazz bigs, particularly Derrick Favors, have been very steady. The wings, however, have been less so.

Although it’s great to see Gordon Hayward, Rodney Hood, Alec Burks, and Trey Burke all shooting over 40 percent on the season, each of them will have to work on minimizing shooting slumps such as Burke’s recent 4-14 (28.5 percent) outing against Dallas.

Despite some of the issues with consistency and closing out games, nothing can diminish the fact that the Jazz are playing good basketball this year and are proving that they can compete in the Western Conference. Even with their current record and how they’ve played so far, they are on track to be a playoff team.

However, if they truly hope to make the jump from good to great, they’ll need to learn how to string together complete games. Currently, the Jazz tend to play great basketball for about 36 minutes per game. If they can find a way to mentally and physically play 48 minutes of great basketball on a consistent basis, this talented Jazz team will be able to reach a whole new level entirely.

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All stats courtesy of NBA.com/stats.