Utah Jazz: Three pros and cons of loss to Nuggets

Jazz out-hustled in the clutch

We can sit here and make excuses for why the Jazz lost this game in the clutch.

Mike Conley was given the ball with 12 seconds on the clock with the team trailing by one point. He got to his spot just left of the free throw line, and had a wide open shot that missed. The excuse would be “that was a good shot that just didn’t go in”.

Then on the Jazz’s final offensive possession they gave the ball to Donovan at the half court line. The Nuggets didn’t give him any driving lanes and he had to be bailed out by a long Bogey three pointer that was on target but too short.

The excuse for that would be “Bogey is a knockdown shooter. I’ll let him take that shot 10 times out of 10”.

But forget the excuses! It was the 50-50 balls in the final five minutes that made the difference between victory and defeat.

At about the two minute mark, the Jazz got lucky and had a missed free throw from PJ Dozier. As Joe Ingles slashed to the hoop he found an opening for a Rudy Gobert alley-oop and took it.

The problem was that a Nuggets player had his feet planted and Joe ran right into him. He took the charge, and that hustle play took away what would’ve been a three point Jazz lead.

The Jazz were able to force a stop on the other end, but as Donovan Mitchell was bringing the ball up the court he got his pocket picked. Monte Morris snuck up behind him and went for the steal, which ended up with the Jazz scrambling to get back on defense.

A missed Jamal Murray three pointer gave the long rebound back to Torrey Craig, and the Nuggets were able to regroup and get Nikola Jokic an isolation play in the mid range. Jokic drained that shot with his high release, and the Jazz weren’t able score after that.

This was unacceptable. The Jazz are one of the best clutch teams in the league this season, and when playing on their home floor against a shorthanded team, they shouldn’t allow these kinds of things to happen in the clutch.

Well it may have been the best win of the season for the Denver Nuggets, it was a gut punch to the Utah Jazz in their quest for a top three seed. Their schedule doesn’t lighten up anytime soon, as they face the Portland Trail-Blazers tomorrow night and then head to Texas for a back-to-back set.