The Utah Jazz suffered a tough loss to a surging Chicago Bulls on Saturday night. Many observers have questioned the sustainability of the Bulls’ hot start to the 2021-22 season, pointing to ease of schedule as an explanation for their success. They provided answers in a gutsy win against the previously undefeated Jazz.
Utah could not get their offense to flow in this contest, as Chicago held them under 100 points in a 107-99 victory. Adding salt to the Jazz’s wound was the absence of Bulls’ defensive stalwart Patrick Williams, who is expected to miss the remainder of the season for wrist surgery. Apparently, the Bulls didn’t need him to take the wind out of the sails of the Utah Jazz.
Fans of the Jazzmen should not overreact to a single regular season loss to an apparently legitimate Chicago Bulls team. On the other hand, that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t reflect on this game to find where their beloved Jazz went wrong. This was a winnable game for the Jazz from the tip, that will nonetheless result in the first loss on the team’s record.
It is worth noting that Mike Conley was resting. The Jazz’s drink looked decidedly unstirred as a result. In total, the team turned the ball over 20 times against a surprisingly active Chicago Bulls defense, and shot a wildly inefficient 5/21 from the three-point line.
We’ve seen how the Jazz can flounder in Conley’s absence, and last night was no exception. Here are 2 duds and 1 stud from Saturday evening’s floundering.
Utah Jazz dud: Donovan Mitchell
By now, it’s so official that it might as well have been notarized by a legal authority: Donovan Mitchell is slumping. The Utah Jazz star’s basic counting stats from this loss to the Bulls were appropriate to his star status, as he finished with 30 points, 7 rebounds, and 6 assists.
If efficiency is something you value, however, you may wish to avert your eyes before reading the next paragraph.
Mitchell finished the game shooting 9/27 from the field, including an unsightly 2/11 from three-point range. It may have been the Jazz’s complete lack of a true point guard outside of rookie Jared Butler that led to Mitchell’s inefficiency. He was saddled with a tremendous workload on Saturday, unable to focus solely on providing his usual scoring punch. The Jazz lacked a distributor, and Mitchell often looked like he was trying to be in two places at once against the Bulls.
Which is, of course, metaphysically impossible. However, Conley’s absence wasn’t the only reason for Mitchell’s struggle on Saturday evening. On the season, he’s shooting 37.6% from the field, and 28.6% from deep.
Furthermore, Mitchell is a talented enough offensive player to withstand Conley’s absence. He may have been too aggressive in his efforts to generate offense on Saturday, perhaps overcompensating for a suddenly fleeting confidence in his three-point shot.
Again, the panic button should be placed firmly outside of any Utah Jazz fan’s reach. Mitchell is overwhelmingly likely to return to form as the season progresses. As it stands, the team simply isn’t able to overcome his shooting struggles in Mike Conley’s absence.
Utah Jazz dud: Jordan Clarkson
Much of what was written about Donovan Mitchell’s performance on Saturday, and its context within the season to date, could be applied to Jordan Clarkson as well. His shooting has wanted for efficiency throughout the season, and last night was no exception.
Clarkson shot 5/19 from the field against the Bulls. He actually shot a barely respectable 3/9 from three-point range, but his shot was generally where it’s remained this season: in the gutter.
All told, Clarkson is shooting 37.5% from the field, and 27.7% from three-point range this season. The Utah Jazz will need better efficiency from him as the season progresses. Unlike Mitchell, Clarkson appeared to be very much in his usual lane on Saturday evening. He’s a score-first gunner, as reflected by his four turnovers and single assist from last night’s game.
That’s perfectly fine: the Jazz haven’t leaned on Clarkson to set up his teammates since the day they acquired him. Furthermore, it’s understood that he’ll be prone to bouts of inefficiency. Second unit spark plugs frequently are. However, on a night where Donovan Mitchell is struggling and Mike Conley is absent, Clarkson needs to have a good game if the Utah Jazz want a chance to beat almost any team in the National Basketball Association.
He was unable to do that last night, and the game’s results reflected as much. The Utah Jazz may be 4-1, but they’ll be extremely lucky to maintain that winning percentage in the long term if neither Mitchell nor Clarkson can break their ongoing shooting slumps.
Utah Jazz stud: Rudy Gobert
Last night may have been bleak for the Jazzmen, but it wasn’t all gloom and doom. Rudy Gobert continued his tour of absolute rebounding dominance. Utah Jazz fans couldn’t pin the team’s overall shooting inefficiency on the Stifle Tower either: he finished this contest with 17 points on 7/9 shooting from the field, 3/4 shooting from the free-throw line, 19 rebounds and 3 blocks.
So far this season, Gobert has the appearance of a player who has achieved mastery within his role. He remains one of the NBA’s premier screen-setters, generating space for the Jazz with his size and verticality in the absence of a three-point shot.
Last night was no exception. Gobert was also largely responsible for a 4/19 performance from Chicago Bulls star center Nikola Vucevic, leveraging his length advantage to make Vooch’s night as difficult as possible.
Gobert’s extremely reliable play in comparison to teammates Donovan Mitchell and Jordan Clarkson is consistent with our expectations of each player in the context of their role. Scoring has always been less reliable than defense, rim-running and rebounding. Gobert’s regular dominance in the areas he’s responsible for is the primary cause of any Utah Jazz fan’s optimism.
It’s likely that both Mitchell and Clarkson will find their form as the season progresses, and when they do, it’s even more likely that Rudy Gobert will be ready.
One more time for the people in the back: Utah Jazz fans should not panic. They were inevitably going to lose games this season, and this is merely the first time that they did so. They’ll hope that both Donovan Mitchell and Jordan Clarkson can regain form in tonight’s contest against the Milwaukee Bucks.