Utah Jazz get much-needed win but bench continues to be a problem

The Utah Jazz broke their mini-slump with a road win over the Minnesota Timberwolves, but their bench continued to be a weak point.

Take a sigh of relief, Utah Jazz fans. The Jazz losing streak is finally over. Yes, it was only a pair of games they dropped, but considering that the consecutive defeats came against lackluster foes in the form of the Memphis Grizzlies and the Andrew Wiggins-less Minnesota Timberwolves, it felt far longer than just a duo of losses.

But fortunately on Wednesday night, in Utah’s rematch against the T-Wolves, they managed to flip the script and come away with a victory by a score of 103-95. It wasn’t always pretty, as it even looked for a moment as if the Jazz would suffer an all-too-familiar fourth quarter collapse, but a late three-point barrage and good execution down the stretch produced the victory.

Bojan Bogdanovic, who has been Utah’s most consistent force, was once again extraordinary, finishing with 30 points on 9-of-18 shooting from the field and 6-of-11 from deep. Rudy Gobert was solid with 12 points and 15 rebounds while holding Karl-Anthony Towns to just 14 points. Donovan Mitchell once again struggled with efficiency, going just 9-of-24 from the field for his 26 points, but his 5-of-10 three-point shooting was reassuring.

Lastly, Mike Conley put up 16 points on an efficient 50 percent from the field and from deep. Looking at those figures alone, it wouldn’t be hard to assume that the Jazz had come out on top quite easily. But unfortunately, such wasn’t exactly the case.

The reason for that was that every time the Jazz seemed as if they were primed to take a big lead, suddenly they would give it back up and let the Timberwolves back into the game rather than put them away. Incidentally, that largely coincided with when the Jazz had their second unit in the game versus when the starters were in play.

For the third consecutive game, the second unit was absolutely atrocious and nearly cost the Jazz the win. For context, in Emmanuel Mudiay‘s mere 15 minutes, he was an awful minus-24. But the blame didn’t rest solely on him. Joe Ingles‘ struggles continued as he went just 1-of-4 from the field including 0-of-2 from deep. He looked hesitant and under-confident – an issue that has plagued him all year.

Meanwhile, Dante Exum continued to look rusty as he went 0-of-1 in his seven minutes of play which produced a plus/minus of minus-16. Georges Niang was ineffective and Jeff Green was streaky. In short, once again when reserves were depended on, they failed to rise to the occasion.

But, honestly, it’s also somewhat unfair to pin all the blame on the reserves. Donovan Mitchell played a considerable amount of his minutes alongside the second unit guys, and he was a minus-11 on the night. I’ve already mentioned his inefficiency, but his decision making was once again spotty.

Truly, the problem lied in the Jazz continuing to not have a solution for when Rudy Gobert is on the bench. With Ed Davis sidelined, Tony Bradley (who hasn’t played the past two games) struggling and Jeff Green’s center minutes being less than riveting, it’s been a bad run for the Jazz at the five-spot.

Ironically, Bojan Bogdanovic finished the night a plus-38, Royce O’Neale a plus-36 and Mike Conley a plus-28. Looking at those figures makes it evident that the Jazz starting unit played well enough to make this game a blowout. Rudy Gobert, who was forced to play clean up a lot with the sloppy reserves, still managed to finish a plus-9.

In other words, Utah’s starting unit is playing well enough to win games quite handily. But when Rudy Gobert goes to the bench and/or when Mitchell is pressing too much while suiting up among the reserves, the Jazz often get into trouble. The Jazz managed to overcome it on Wednesday night, but it’s a troubling trend that won’t always be easy to resolve. And, obviously it sunk them in both of their previous contests.

The Jazz continue to show reassuring signs. But their bench play is extremely troubling, and in some ways, such a trend shouldn’t be that hard to predict.

After all, they are relying on two guys on minimum contracts in Jeff Green and Emmanuel Mudiay to step up and play significant roles. Beyond those two, there’s Dante Exum who has a long way to go to get comfortable once again post-injury, Joe Ingles, who has been off all year long, and then a slew of inconsistent or unproven guys that round out the bench.

So unless the Jazz decide to dip into the shallow free agent market or pull off an unbelievable trade, I’m not so sure what they’re going to do other than hope that the current guys can continue to improve and assimilate, and that Ed Davis can return quickly and leave a dramatic mark.

But if none of those things happen, the Jazz may very well be in for some trouble both in the regular and post season as they deal with a significant lack of depth.