Utah Jazz Lose to Memphis Grizzlies 88-79 to End Long Road Trip

In the final game of a long five-game road trip, several Utah Jazz players struggled and the team ultimately fell to the Memphis Grizzlies.

The Utah Jazz visited Memphis on a cold Sunday evening to complete their five-game road trip. As expected, the game was a defensive battle between the two remaining old school teams in the NBA. Unfortunately, the night would not go Utah’s way. The Memphis Grizzlies held the Jazz to less than 39 percent shooting from the field and defeated the Jazz 88-79.

With the loss, the Utah Jazz closed their five road games in seven nights trip with a 2-3 record and fell to sixth place in the Western Conference.

First half analysis:
This was a physical game from the beginning. The game began with Jazz players repeatedly complaining to the referees, while the Grizzlies veterans (except for Gasol) simply focused on playing the game. The Jazz were down eight points in the first quarter and the game could have been over just like that. However, Utah used a 7-0 run to end the first quarter and get back into the game.

The second quarter was more of the same, with the referees letting the players play. Utah’s players settled down in the second quarter but still ended the half down 42-35. While the box score will show you that Rudy Gobert was -9 for the half, anyone watching the game could tell you that he was the best player for Jazz in the first two quarters – another reason to take some stats with a grain of salt. He had four offensive rebounds and made multiple hustle plays.

Meanwhile, Rodney Hood still struggled with his shot and George Hill had an unusually quiet half with two points on 1-of-7 shooting.

Gordon Hayward had 11 and in the second quarter was bottled up by Tony Allen, who repeatedly waved his signature All-NBA first team defense finger. Derrick Favors was largely a forgotten man, with Quin Synder benching the two pass-first point guards in Dante Exum and Raul Neto. He rarely got the ball on the post or on the roll, and Memphis doubled him every time.

At the break, Memphis was led by Chandler Parsons with nine points and Marc Gasol with 10 points. The Jazz played poor defense on Parsons by going under screens when they should have known that he pulls up most of the times at the top of the key. They also over-guarded Tony Allen at the 3-point line on occasion, which is a bit of an overkill given his struggles from behind the arc.

Second half analysis:

Throughout the game, but particularly in the second half, Rudy gave space to Marc Gasol to shoot and he obliged every time. Therefore, unfortunately, Marc shot the ball very well. While the Jazz stayed with the Grizzlies for the most of the third quarter, their fatigue eventually caught up with them in the fourth.

Still, Rudy Gobert and Gordon Hayward fought hard throughout the game, Trey Lyles kept the Jazz in the game with his three-point shooting, but unfortunately, the Jazz were not able to get a lot of stops on the defensive end.

And while those three played well, Hood played extremely poorly tonight. He has not found his shot or confidence after coming back from injury. He is not a two-way player, so if he is not contributing on the offensive end, he is hurting the team by being on the floor. It did not help that George Hill also had his first dud game in a Jazz uniform tonight.

Gordon Hayward finished with 22 points, and was easily the best offensive player for the Jazz. Rudy Gobert gathered seven offensive rebounds and kept his streak of 10+ rebounds alive, but everyone else for the Jazz played pretty poorly.

Memphis thrived on defense as they blitzed most of Utah’s pick-and-rolls. While this should not be news for the Jazz, they still struggled to respond with pocket passes. Dante Exum got his now-usual DNP-CD tonight, while Shelvin Mack shared the PG responsibility behind George Hill.

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While Exum’s lack of playing time has become quite a hot topic for fans, they probably ought to just get used to this rotation. Quin has a vision, but so did Corbin. And we all know how well that worked out.

Now that the long road trip is over, next up for the Jazz are the defending champions as LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers will be in Salt Lake City on Tuesday. Be sure to stay tuned to The J Notes for updates leading up to and after the game.