Utah Jazz at OKC Thunder recap: Brutal month hits new low

The Utah Jazz lost to the OKC Thunder in blowout fashion, 107-79. Russell Westbrook had 24 points, 10 rebounds, and 7 assists in only 27 minutes of play.

We all knew December was going to be rough for the Utah Jazz. Heading into this six-game road trip, the Chicago Bulls felt like the only winnable game along with potentially this one last night against the OKC Thunder.

Well, the Jazz lost to Chicago, which felt awful at the time, but Chicago has now won seven straight games (undefeated since Nikola Mirotic came back from injury).

The Jazz did win an incredible game against the Boston Celtics, though, so they ended the trip with one win and 5 losses.

After all is said and done, 1-5 is the record we mostly expected from the trip anyway, but the win was supposed to come from the Bulls, not the Celtics.

What happened out there?

It wasn’t pretty. The Jazz started the game with back to back turnovers from Ricky Rubio on what were essentially just careless basketball plays. The Jazz went on to turn the ball over five more times in the first quarter.

You give some credit to the Thunder for getting in passing lanes and executing off those turnovers, but man, a team would have to be really, really bad not to take advantage of the way Utah was playing in that first quarter.

Russell Westbrook also came out strong. He knocked down one midrange shot after another. And it looked like both he and Carmelo were having fun out there all night. That’s a rare sight these days.

The Thunder are also more athletic at every position, especially with Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell out with injury.

Joe Ingles to Paul George (I’d still take Joe Ingles any day of the week)

Joe Johnson to Carmelo Anthony (In his heyday, JJ wins, but he’s old man Joe now, still not 100% after his injury hiatus)

Derrick Favors to Steven Adams

Rodney Hood to Andre Roberson

Ricky Rubio to Russell Westbrook

Favors could be more athletic than Adams. They both were returning from concussion protocol, but Adams outplayed, out-manned, and out-bullied Favors all night. He only had 11 points, but had a team high box plus-minus of 38.

Jazz Twitter mostly started to blame the results on the lack of Donovan Mitchell. While that was a factor, the road trip makes a huge difference. The Jazz fought in every single one of the previous games, all against very good teams. (The Bulls should be considered a good team playing the way they are right now).

The first quarter ended 25-9 and the Jazz became only the second team (Bulls) to have two single-digit quarters so far this season.

From there on out, it mostly got worse. The Jazz had a mini-run (which was basically the best three minute stretch of basketball the Jazz played) to end the half and the game was almost in reach again, but consecutive turnovers gave momentum back to the Thunder. By the end of the third, the game was entirely out of reach and it was garbage time.

Are there any positive takeaways here?

Yes. The Jazz play the Thunder again this week at home. And while Utah has been on the back end of a back-to-back in two of the three Thunder match-ups thus far, this time the Thunder will be. If the Jazz can win that game, they will end the series at two wins apiece.

This is important because we’re still not sure if the Thunder will suddenly figure things out. If they don’t, it’s likely the Jazz will be fighting with them for playoff seeding.

And if you forgot that December was supposed to be really rough, remember this:

After this month is over, the schedule is much easier. We’ll have Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert back from injury. If any group can be resilient through adversity and be mentally okay after a grueling December, it’s this group.

Next: The Utah Jazz point guard curse continues with Ricky Rubio

The Jazz are back in action against the San Antonio Spurs on Thursday night.