Home court woes continue as the Donovan Mitchell-less Utah Jazz fall apart in the second half against a stingy Memphis team.
Holy smokes Friday night’s game between the Utah Jazz and Memphis Grizzlies was ugly. I don’t even know where to start really, but here goes.
The Utah Jazz had a very hard time getting the defense going, the Grizzlies were picking them apart. Memphis was creating mismatches constantly as the Jazz were trying to switch everything. The Jazz had bigs covering guards and guards covering bigs. This meant that Mike Conley and Marc Gasol had good looks pretty much all night.
The Jazz put together a pretty solid first half which featured Ricky Rubio shooting extremely well. He was able to make up for Donovan Mitchell’s absence. Joe Ingles also contributed nicely. But the offense fell apart in the second half. The team wasn’t moving the ball well and the shooting was flat. Jae Crowder had a nice fourth quarter and was the only reason the team had any hope at the end of the game.
We get punched but get right back up last one standing wins baby. #ontothenextone pic.twitter.com/dZiBlZSjzA
— Rudy Gobert (@rudygobert27) November 3, 2018
One of the most frustrating aspects of the game was Utah’s offensive inefficiency down low. So far this season Rudy Gobert has been an offensive monster down low, averaging 18.3 points per game. He finished with 9. This is an exception rather than a rule, but it was still frustrating as all get out.
Finally, I think it’s worth noting that former Jazz-man, Shelvin Mack, was a thorn in Utah’s side all night. He finished with 19 points on 7-of-11 shooting. He hit big shots again and again, finishing with 19 points. And when he wasn’t scoring himself, he was helping someone else score. It seemed like whenever the Jazz had any momentum starting, Mack would do something to kill it.
The Jazz are in for another challenge against Denver on Saturday. Hopefully they find some rhythm or else it might result in another very frustrating night.