The Utah Jazz just took a trip to Florida, but they didn’t come away with any pictures of them posing with Mickey Mouse. Instead, they’re bringing a pair of losses back to Salt Lake City.
The first of those losses came at the hands of the Miami Heat, and it was forgivable by the standards of even the most stalwart Jazz fan. With a final score of 118-115, this one was a missed Donovan Mitchell three-point attempt away from going to overtime. Furthermore, it came at the hands of a fellow contender. It was the type of loss from which nobody could come to any realistic, meaningful conclusions.
Consider last night’s defeat at the hands of the Orlando Magic the exact opposite.
That game was ugly if we’re being generous. Nonetheless, there were lessons to learn from it, as there tend to be from hardship. Here are 3 that we’re hoping the Utah Jazz can learn from this recent, unexpected 2-game skid.
Utah Jazz Lesson 1: Rudy Gobert will always bounce back
We’ll start on a positive note, since the rest of this article is unlikely to generate any goodwill. Rudy Gobert had his worst showing of the young NBA season against the Miami Heat, finishing with 8 points and 8 rebounds in 29 minutes. He appeared to struggle against the more athletically gifted Bam Adebayo, who finished with 17 points, 6 rebounds and 6 assists. Gobert has gifts that he can leverage against Adebayo: he simply failed to do so in this particular contest.
Against the Magic, Gobert returned instantly to form. He had 21 points, 15 rebounds, 4 blocks and 3 steals in this outing. He generated those numbers with his usual brand of interior dominance. The Magic were impressive in this victory, but that can’t be attributed to Gobert’s performance.