The Utah Jazz have been extremely inconsistent from behind the three-point line of late and that will have to change if they hope to compete with the Golden State Warriors moving forward.
Oddly enough, despite the fact that the score would indicate that not much went right for the Utah Jazz in their 106-94 Game 1 loss to the Golden State Warriors, one area where Utah had the edge was in three-point shooting. The Jazz finished the game shooting 9-of-29 (31 percent) from deep while the Warriors went a dismal 7-of-29 (24.1 percent).
To be quite honest, if I had been told prior to the game that the Jazz would hold the Warriors to under 25 percent shooting from three, I would have felt really optimistic about Utah’s chances to arise victorious. Golden State is reputed as a deadly three-point team that has often absolutely buried teams by racking up points from behind the arc.
However, it turned out that the Jazz would give up 14 turnovers which resulted in 20 points for the Warriors and that was largely the difference in the game. Not to mention, although Golden State struggled mightily from deep, Utah wasn’t all that much better as they finished well below their regular season average of 37.2 percent and their first-round average of 38.9 percent.
And considering how unlikely it is that Golden State has a repeat of their poor shooting night from behind the arc, it will be absolutely vital that the Jazz look to improve their stroke from deep if they hope to keep pace offensively and produce the necessary firepower to compete with the top-seeded Warriors.
Warriors 7-29 from three tonight was their 6th worst three-point shooting game all season. I'm not sure if that's good or bad news.
— Spence Checketts (@spencechecketts) May 3, 2017
Unfortunately, the Jazz have been in quite a slump from deep lately, without showing many encouraging signs of improving and finding consistency in that area. In Games 1 through 4 of their first-round bout against the Los Angeles Clippers, Utah shot over 40 percent in each contest, including a red-hot 45.5 percent (10-of-22) outing in the Game 4 victory.
However, since then, the three-ball hasn’t fallen with much consistency. In Game 5 Utah put up 36 attempts (many of which were uncontested) and converted on only 13 of them (36.1 percent). In Game 6, the Jazz had their worst three-point shooting outing of the postseason going just 7-of-26 (26.9 percent).
One might argue that the Jazz got back in their groove in the Game 7 win as they shot 46.2 percent from behind the arc. However, that came on just 13 attempts whereas Utah has averaged over 27 three-point attempts in its other seven postseason games. It seemed like after failing to convert effectively in Games 5 and 6, the Jazz decided to stop settling for threes and instead rely on scoring in other ways and it certainly worked out in Game 7.
But Utah was back to their former discouraging three-point shooting ways in Game 1 against the Warriors as they finished the game at that aforementioned 31 percent clip.
https://twitter.com/utahjazz/status/859976585276829696
It’s no secret that the Warriors are a much more prolific offensive team than the Jazz, so if Utah hopes to have any chance to put up enough points to hang with the best team in the league, they’re going to have to find a groove from beyond the arc.
The Jazz were the ninth best three-point shooting team in the regular season and even with their recent woes are still the sixth best team in the postseason so far. Guys like Gordon Hayward, George Hill, Joe Johnson, Joe Ingles and Rodney Hood are all formidable deep-ball threats that have the ability to fill it up when they got hot.
In other words, the Jazz are a great three-point shooting team overall, but they have to start playing like one. If they don’t, then especially when Golden State catches fire from deep themselves (which is essentially inevitable) then Utah will more than likely be buried offensively even more than they were in Game 1.
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The Warriors absolutely deserve all the credit in the world for how well they played in Game 1 and being able to blowout the Jazz despite not hitting their shots from deep either. However, it also seemed from the onset that Utah was playing timidly and with a noticeable lack of confidence. Despite all their statements in pre-game interviews about such not being the case, when push came to shove the Jazz looked overwhelmed against the Warriors.
That sentiment certainly carried over to their three-point shooting as well. It’s not surprising that a young team like the Jazz would feel considerable angst against a juggernaut like the Warriors, but that’s a mentality they’ll have to fix.
Hopefully the Jazz will be able to make the proper adjustments to come out with more confidence in Game 2, see the ball go through the hoop a few more times and thus get back to their sharpshooting ways. Doing so may be their only hope to stay afloat in the series.
All stats courtesy of NBA.com