Utah Jazz: Bad Lakers loss could prove extremely costly
By Ryan Aston
The Utah Jazz squandered a chance to net their 50th win in epic fashion against a shorthanded, lottery-bound Los Angeles Lakers team.
During their recent streak of seven straight wins and 12 in their last 13 games, the Utah Jazz have done that thing that good teams are expected to do — feast on lesser competition. On Sunday night, though, Donovan Mitchell and company experienced a spectacular change of fortune.
Facing a lottery-bound LA Lakers squad that was missing nine rotation players — Coach Luke Walton trotted out a starting five of Alex Caruso, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Mike Muscala, Jemerrio Jones and JaVale McGee — the Jazz band struck only sour notes down the stretch and ultimately dropped a heart-breaker at Staples Center, 113-109.
It was a loss that could end up haunting them once final playoff seeding is determined.
After entering the final carom with the lead, Utah collapsed in crunch time, surrendering 32 points on 68 percent from the field and hitting just 8-of-24 from the floor on the other side of the court.
Mitchell, who has been known for his mastery in the clutch since entering the league last season, was the biggest offender offensively, missing all seven of his shot attempts. Woof.
Those numbers are all hard to swallow against the LeBron James (and everybody else)-less Lakers, but even worse is the fact that the Jazz have dealt a serious blow to their own quest to capture home-court advantage in Round 1 of postseason play.
At this point, the Jazz will have to win difficult match-ups against the LA Clippers and Denver Nuggets while the current fourth-seed, the Portland Trail Blazers, lose out against the lowly Lakers and Sacramento Kings.
That seems a rather dicey proposition; at this point, even getting to 50 wins is far from guaranteed.
Worse yet, the Jazz could fall to six and be forced to play the Houston Rockets, or even meet James Harden and his crew in the 4/5 series, should Portland catch them.
This is hardly a hot take, but the Jazz DO NOT want to play the Rockets in the playoffs. Like…not even a little bit.
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Since February 1, Houston boasts the No. 1 offense in the league (O-rating 117.0) and is also the No. 5 defensive team (D-rating 106.7). And counting last year’s second-round playoff series, the Jazz have dropped 10 of their last 13 games to the Rockets.
When last the two teams met, the Jazz lost by 27 points on their home floor and Harden dropped 43 points on 22 shots.
None of this points to the Jazz coming out on top in a best-of-seven situation.
If we’re going glass half-full here, you could say that this is a loss that will make the Jazz realize they can still lose to anybody, despite the fact that it’s something they haven’t done much of recently, and one that will force them to re-focus and re-commit before the playoffs tip-off.
If you ask me, though, I’d say that kind of thing is a bit over-played. The best weapon the Jazz had to secure a favorable playoff spot was a clean slate over their final three games. Now, that’s out the window and it could make life very hard for the Jazz once the second season begins.