10/21 Utah Jazz vs. Oklahoma City Thunder: Keys to the Game

Key #2 – Cut Down on Turnovers

While some miscues are to be expected as a new-look Jazz team tries to familiarize themselves with one another, the team still absolutely has to cut down on their turnovers. They put up 19 against the Minnesota Timberwolves last night that led to 25 points, including a couple of late crucial turnovers that cost the Jazz the game.

Ricky Rubio and Rudy Gobert have been among the primary culprits as they’re averaging 3.5 and 4.5 turnovers per game, respectively. Again, part of this has to do with the two working to get accustomed to one another and their new teammates, but it’s still been an enormous detriment to Utah’s success thus far.

And in Oklahoma City’s first contest, they forced the Knicks into a whopping 26 turnovers which led to 37 points. 14 of those turnovers came off Thunder steals which just goes to show how active and disruptive they were in their first contest. With the Thunder apparently being a force at stealing the ball and the Jazz being turnover prone thus far, that’s not a good combination.

If the Jazz hope to arise victorious, they’ll absolutely have to reverse that trend immediately or else OKC could very well run away with an enormous victory.