Small, dynamic guards
This issue dates back before the 2019-20 season. The Utah Jazz have struggled for years to contain small, quick guards. The stereotypical “sixth man” guard in today’s NBA has been hurting Jazz Nation for years.
We all have memories of Jamal Crawford torturing Jazz fans with his four point plays and explosive scoring nights. Last season, Derrick Rose dropped 50 points on the Jazz and blocked Dante Exum‘s game tying attempt from the corner at the buzzer.
Eric Gordon dropped 50 points to lead the JV Rockets team to an upset over the Jazz just two weeks ago, and a tweet from a former contributor of The J-Notes confirmed my suspicions.
For those curious, the Jazz have allowed six 50+point performances over the past 3 seasons. That ties the Washington Wizards for most in the NBA.
— John Keeffer (@john_keeffer) February 2, 2020
No other team has allowed more than 3 over that span... https://t.co/WeSFzDNLPD
And it hasn’t just been candidates for the Sixth Man of the Year award who have been hurting Utah. Damian Lillard has quite a prolific history against the Utah Jazz, averaging 42 points per on a blistering 57 percent from the 3-point line.
On Friday night, Dejounte Murray scored 23 points last night and had his moments were he made Donovan Mitchell look like a silly toy bouncing from a string.
Tim Hardaway Jr. of the Dallas Mavericks also has a tendency to light up the Jazz defense. He went for 33 points in their last meeting and was instrumental in Dallas’ comeback effort that almost bit the Jazz in the butt.
Jamal Murray went for 31 points against the Jazz last time they played in Utah’s disheartening loss to the walking wounded Denver Nuggets. And just last night they allowed Russell Westbrook and James Harden to combine for 72 points.
If I’m the coach of an NBA team and I have to play the Jazz, then I would definitely use a small and quick guard with range to torch Swat Lake City.