Utah Jazz: Five adjustments for Games 3 and 4
The Utah Jazz currently find themselves in a 2-0 hole to the Golden State Warriors. If they hope to reverse their fate, they’ll need to make the following adjustments for Games 3 and 4.
As much as Utah Jazz fans had hoped and dreamed that their team would be the one to finally give the Golden State Warriors a challenge and perhaps even a run for their money, that’s been far from the case so far. After two games inside Oracle Arena, the Jazz quickly find themselves in a 2-0 hole to the defending Western Conference Champions.
And although the final scores of both games were quite similar with Utah losing by 12 in Game 1 and 11 in Game 2, the dynamic of each contest couldn’t have been more different. In the first outing, Golden State dominated the whole way and Utah only just managed to hedge the deficit at the end of the game with both teams’ starters on the bench.
In Game 2, the Warriors once again got off to a fast start, but the Jazz battled all game long, cutting the lead to single digits several times, getting as close as to within six points. However, Utah was never able to close the gap and ultimately fell by 11 points.
Good fight tonight, boys - Let's show 'em how it's done in SLC!#UTAatGSW pic.twitter.com/ybe6CQTKcX
— Utah Jazz (@utahjazz) May 5, 2017
On the bright side, after a disastrous first quarter which saw the Jazz trail 33-15 after 12 minutes, Utah outscored the Warriors the rest of the way. Particularly in the second and third quarters, the Jazz got into much more of a groove and played with much higher confidence than they did in the first quarter and in the entirety of Game 1.
Hopefully they garnered some much-needed momentum and strategy from those stretches that they’ll be able to apply towards their game plan in Games 3 and 4 in Salt Lake City. Facing a 2-0 deficit, every game, especially the ones on their home court in front of the raucous home crowd, will be absolute must-wins for Utah.
If they hope to have any chance of defending home court and evening up the series, then these are the five adjustments that they’ll most need to make based on their struggles in Games 1 and 2.