The Utah Jazz are riding a three-game winning streak, but one area of concern has to be their inability to play a complete game at a high level.
While this three-game winning streak has been positive for the Utah Jazz, they still have quite a bit of room for improvement. They’re still shaky at times defensively, non Rudy Gobert minutes are torture and they continue to beat bad teams, but lose to good teams.
Still, the Jazz are back on the right track following a rough patch after the All-Star break. They have a record of 39-22 and are just a half game back of the Rockets for the fourth seed in the Western Conference.
They still have a legitimate chance of entering the playoffs with home court advantage, which has been the goal all season long.
Another area of concern that is going to need to be fixed before the playoffs is Utah continuing to let teams back in the game. They look dominate in stretches, but also look lost in stretches. I’d like to see more consistency from them.
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No team is ever going to play a flawless game, and I’m not saying that the Utah Jazz will. They do, however, have too much talent to keep teams like Cleveland and New York within striking distance after building a large lead.
When it happens to teams like Houston, Denver or either Los Angeles team, then the Jazz would be in big trouble.
For example, the Jazz went up 33-16 in the first quarter during last night’s win in New York, but then allowed Bobby Portis to rack up 19 points in a 12 minute stretch. The lead quickly evaporated to 42-35 before going back up to 64-54 at halftime.
Utah had a 106-85 lead with exactly six minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, but only won by eight points. The chance of a Knicks comeback was slim, and it seems that the Jazz’s effort dropped because of that.
Rewinding to Monday’s win in Cleveland, the Jazz had a 33-25 lead early in the second quarter. Nothing big, but the problem is the Jazz failing to score a point during a 3:16 stretch that saw a 17-win team take the lead.
Then Utah had one of those dominant stretches and closed the half with a 59-51 lead. It just feels like this team hits the on/off switch too often.
Of course, like I mentioned earlier, some of this problem can be relayed to Rudy Gobert being on the bench. When he’s off the court, so is the Jazz’s defense. It’s one of the scarier concerns going into the playoffs.
We’ll see if the Utah Jazz can figure out a way to manage going into the playoffs. It’s a whole different game in the playoffs, and every single possession will matter. We need to see a more complete game from the Jazz.