Utah Jazz vs. Adelaide 36ers: Jazz aim to stay perfect in preseason

The Utah Jazz will aim to raise their preseason record to 3-0 on Friday night as they host the Adelaide 36ers of Australia’s NBL.

In preseason game number one, the Utah Jazz stuck it to the Perth Wildcats of Australia’s NBL. A shorthanded and undersized lineup was overwhelmed by Utah as the clearly more talented squad ran away with a 130-72 victory.

In the second game of preseason, the Jazz faced stiffer competition against the Toronto Raptors. At halftime, Toronto looked to be in control as they took a nine-point lead into the break. However, with Kyle Lowry and Kawhi Leonard out of action for the second half, the Jazz battled back to win in convincing fashion 105-90.

However, such may have not been the case if the Raptors had played their stars. The Jazz had some ugly moments in that second quarter, and definitely have a lot to clean up before regular season basketball gets underway. Fortunately, they have a trio of audition games left before the games start to count.

The next of those three bouts will take place on Friday as Utah will host yet another NBL squad in the Adelaide 36ers. This will be the last of Utah’s home preseason contests and the last international team they’ll face. From here on out, they’ll wrap up preseason on the road against the Portland Trail Blazers and Sacramento Kings before tipping off the regular season back in Sacramento on October 17th.

Just like the Jazz beat up on Perth, they should be able to take care of business against Adelaide in similar fashion. While there’s undoubtedly some talented guys in the 36ers ranks, they simply don’t have the size, athleticism or basketball prowess to match a squad like the Jazz.

Still, Utah can’t get complacent. Melbourne United and the Sydney Kings both recently put up respectable fights (by respectable, I mean within 20 points or less) against the Philadelphia 76ers and LA Clippers, respectively. Then there’s the New Zealand Breakers, who nearly upset the Phoenix Suns, falling by a mere five points. Sure, that was the Suns after all, but still the point is that the Jazz can’t be caught sleeping.

Because I guarantee that Adelaide will come out swinging and ready to give their all as they aim to pull off a major upset. The Jazz will need to prove they’re up to the task as well as show that they learned from their mistakes in the contest against the Raptors.

Principal among those were the turnovers. Against Toronto, the Jazz coughed it up a whopping 22 times, with several of the giveaways coming on careless or lazy decisions. Those 22 turnovers led to 21 easy points for the Raptors.

Secondly, the Jazz offense was less than impressive for a large portion of the night against Toronto, especially in that second quarter where the offense was essentially Joe Ingles. Thank goodness he had a hot hand. The Jazz managed to right the ship, finishing the night at a 43.4 percent field goal shooting clip and a mark of 41.9 percent from deep, but that stagnant second quarter with both teams’ best players in action was scary.

Jazz star Donovan Mitchell was among the guilty culprits as he finished just 4-of-12 for the night as he has yet to find his shot in preseason. Grayson Allen running the backup point guard spot in place of the injured Dante Exum didn’t go too well either as he finished just 2-of-9 despite his spectacular play in the first preseason game.

The shot selection of the likes of Alec Burks (1-of-8) and Jae Crowder (2-of-5) was reminiscent of last season, and in all the Jazz just didn’t get the contributions they would have liked from some of the reserve guys with high expectations heading into this year.

A lot of this had to do with preseason jitters and the fact that it was the first bout against an actual NBA team. And the good thing is that the Jazz certainly got their composure back in the second half. Still, they’ll need to button up their passing to avoid turnovers and get the ball moving better on offense to create better and easier shots to avoid the scoring drought they suffered against a good Raptors defense in the second quarter.

The good news is, the Jazz have plenty of time to iron these things out, and I’m confident they’ll only continue to get sharper in the upcoming preseason games. Not only that, but they’ll be able to play far from a perfect game on Friday night and will still be able to beat Adelaide with relative ease.

Still, though, what you hope to see in preseason, regardless of the competition, is constant and consistent improvement. No matter what the score is against the 36ers in the upcoming bout, if the Jazz show progress and attention to detail in the areas they struggled in last game, it will be an absolute step in the right direction for this rising Jazz squad.

The contest between the Utah Jazz and Adelaide 36ers will tip off at 7:00 PM MT on Friday, and will be available to watch on NBA League Pass.