In the first game after the All-Star break, the Utah Jazz put up a less-than-stellar performance, losing to the San Antonio Spurs 113-104 at home. One of the worst losses of the season, the Jazz looked out of sorts in all facets of the game.
If you’re a fan of the Utah Jazz, you want to see Emmanuel Mudiay getting super aggressive on both ends of the court to give his team a boost of energy off the bench — especially in games in which Mike Conley isn’t playing. What you don’t want to see, however, is Mudiay taking it upon himself late in a tight game to salvage the Jazz’s chance at a victory against an inferior opponent.
Unfortunately, if you tuned into last night’s contest against the San Antonio Spurs, that’s exactly what you saw. Sure, Mudiay might’ve finished the game with a team-high 18 points, but late in the fourth quarter, I have to think he must’ve asked himself something along the lines of, “Why in the heck do I have the ball in my hands so much right now?”
Mr. Mudiay, the answer is simple: you were actually willing to do something with it — or at least try to do something with it. Nine of Mudiay’s 18 points came in the fourth quarter.
Apart from Mudiay, Bojan Bogdanović and Jordan Clarkson added a combined 15 points of their own. There were a few key Jazzmen who failed to deliver come crunch time when the team need them most, however:
- Joe Ingles – One point in the fourth quarter.
- Rudy Gobert – One point in the fourth quarter.
- Donovan Mitchell – Three points in the fourth quarter.
The real story of last night’s belly-flop of a performance isn’t one of missed opportunities late in the game or an unwarranted reliance upon role players like Mudiay — it’s one of a Jazz team that simply couldn’t be bothered to compete after having not played a meaningful game in nine days.
Right from the get-go, the Jazz came out flat. And we’re talking really flat.
Like, take however flat Kyrie Irving’s brain thinks the world is and kick up the “flatness” level a notch or two — that’s how flat the Utah Jazz were last night.
The biggest evidence of this?
The Jazz average 15.1 turnovers per game. Last night, however, they went painstakingly out of their way to turn the ball over 17 times, compared to just seven turnovers for the Spurs. Even worse, those 17 turnovers led directly to 18 points for the Spurs’ offense.
Furthermore, to go along with the Spurs’ 17 forced turnovers, they also added 12 steals (a lazy Jazz offense) and an incredible seven blocks — major props to Jakob Pöltl for nabbing four of them for himself in the first half alone, while apparently doing his best Gobert impersonation.
Try Jakob Poeltl at your own riskpic.twitter.com/72tsurJr1u
— The Big Fundamental Spurs Podcast (@bigfunpod) February 22, 2020
On the flip side of things, though, the Jazz also stunk up the joint defensively.
Largely predicated on funneling perimeter shooters into the paint where they’re soon met by Gobert, the Spurs opted to simply take what the Jazz were giving them. Come the final whistle, Greg Popovich’s team had drained 16 of the 35 shots they took between the paint and three-point line — long live the 15-foot jumper, peeps.
After last night, things seem pretty bleak, don’t they?
Here’s the good news, though …
Tonight, the Jazz have an opportunity to get things right.
They’ll be taking on James Harden, Russell Westbrook and the rest of their three-heaving cohorts out on the hardwood at Vivint Smart Home Arena at 7 p.m. MST.
The All-Star break rust we saw last night? It’s been scrubbed off. Those voodoo-ridden, nacho cheese-colored Statement jerseys? Forget about ‘em — they’re gone. All that’s left to do is go out and secure a nerve-calming win for the sake of #TakeNote Nation’s sanity …
As far as this writer is concerned, the Utah Jazz will get it done — fingers crossed.