The Utah Jazz pushed their season-long win streak to six and are now at the .500 mark with a victory over the Phoenix Suns.
After all the adversity the Utah Jazz have faced this season through injuries and inconsistency, the team is finally playing .500 ball once again. The Jazz used a strong first quarter to keep the Phoenix Suns at bay and won Saturday night’s game at Talking Stick Resort Arena, 98-89.
Rodney Hood led the Jazz with 25 points while Gordon Hayward chipped in with 22 ( including 14 in the first quarter). The Jazz shot 43.6 percent from the field and still won handsomely. Even with Hack-a-Rudy in effect, the team shot 80 percent from the free throw line to help seal the game.
Meanwhile, Phoenix was terrible offensively. Although Jazz bigs did not do a good job of contesting three-pointers, the Suns shot only 37.5 percent from the field overall. Devin Booker, who was passed by Jazz on draft day in favor of Trey Lyles, played 34 minutes and led the Suns with 18 points. Lyles played only five minutes.
The Good
Gobert made his free throws. If he can continue to do so, the Jazz can keep themselves from falling prey to Hack-a-(insert name here). If Gobert is struggling, they can still bring in Jeff Withey, who shoots better and plays good defense. That is if coach Synder remembers Jeff Withey is on the team.
Gobert made eight out of ten Hack-a-Rudy free throws and coasted to his second double-double of February.
The Bad
There were two huge defensive lapses by Jazz during the game.
The first was that Jazz bigs, especially Derrick Favors, did not show up on screens. This led to multiple open three-point looks for the Suns and Markieff Morris in particular. Luckily for the Jazz, Morris did not seem to want to play tonight and shot miserably from the floor (6/22).
The other problem was defensive switches. When the Jazz made some switches, especially with Booker, they did not execute well. The main anchor needs to communicate loudly on defense. The Jazz were caught multiple times with two Jazzmen defending the same Suns player on switches.
The Warriors would have dropped 150 on the Jazz defense yesterday. However, it is to be noted that sometimes players exert better defensive effort against better offensive teams.
The Ugly
Effort seems to be the main problem with the Suns. There are players like PJ Tucker and Booker who seem to care (Ronnie Price is injured). However, rest are just a hot mess.
The biggest disappointment for Phoenix this season has been Alex Len. Len has regressed considerably. Suns’ GM Ryan McDonough has taken many bold risks (Isiah Thomas, Tyson Chandler, giving up on the Lakers pick) which have destroyed the chemistry of the team.
Earl Watson, a former Jazz fan favorite, has an unenviable task. He is basically auditioning his team for the trade deadline, during which the Suns figure to be major players. It’s hard to get respect as a coach when you are tagged with the interim status and when the front office has a history of not backing up the coaches.
What in the World?!
Epic line from the Suns’ commentary box on Joe Ingles’ athleticism–
The only thing more brutal than that slam on Slow-Mo Joe’s athleticism is the Stifle Tower’s jump shot–
Yeeesh.
Next: Jazz climb to .500 with win against Suns
The Jazz take on the Mavericks on Tuesday in Dallas, where they have not won since 2010. The last time the Jazz played the Mavs, Deron Williams took it out on his former team, leading Dallas to a victory. The Jazz defense needs to be spot-on against Dirk and company to be competitive in this game.