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.
Utah Jazz Lesson 2: Maybe you can shoot too many threes
Quin Snyder stuck to his three-point dominant attack against the Heat, and it’s hard to put the loss on his strategy. The Jazz shot 15/45 (33.3%) in that contest. That’s not elite accuracy, but it does make for solid efficiency on such a tremendous volume of three-point attempts. They finished the game with 115 points, which is enough to win an average NBA game. Realistically, there is no explanation for a loss to a contender by a single field goal attempt.
On the other hand, against the Magic, the Utah Jazz shot themselves out of the game. They were a gruesome 8/42 from three-point range (19.0%). Royce O’Neale was the only Jazzman who shot the three efficiently vs Orlando, going 2/3 in what was generally his best game of the season (14 points, 7 rebounds, 3 steals). O’Neale is an invaluable member of this Jazz rotation, but he’s not exactly an offensive hub.
Everyone else’s performance against the Magic ranged roughly from horrible to more horrible. Donovan Mitchell may have finished with 21 points and 7 assists, but his points total was a function of necessity more than quality play. He shot 8/24 from the field, including a particularly uncomfortable 2/12 three-point shooting.
Snyder’s three-point dominant offense has been highly efficient throughout 2021-22 to-date, as their 114.36 Offensive Rating still ranks third in the league. However, a lesson worth learning from their performance against the Magic might be that sometimes, it’s necessary to pivot away from that strategy. Snyder need look no further than several Mike D’Antoni-led teams throughout history. When you live and die by the 3, eventually, you usually end up dying.
Utah Jazz Lesson 3: Jordan Clarkson is not out of the woods
First of all: we do not enjoy picking on Jordan Clarkson. We really don’t. He’s an entertaining player to watch. He has a seemingly limitless bag of dribble move, he’s fearless, and for what it’s worth, he’s a likeable person.
He’s also had a single good game through the first ten games of the 2021-22 season for the Utah Jazz.
That game alone was enough to inspire confidence. Clarkson hung 30 points on the Atlanta Hawks, on 10/19 shooting from the field and 4/10 shooting from three-point range. Utah Jazz fans hoped it was a sign of the times, but since that game, it’s looked more like an aberration.
Against the Heat, Clarkson scored 7 points on 3/9 shooting, including 1/6 shooting from three-point range. Whether his low volume in the midst of inefficiency was a wise decision is a matter of debate. At least Clarkson was thoughtful enough to showcase the other side of that coin against the Magic: he finished with 6 points on 2/13 shooting from the field. Of those 13 field goal attempts, 11 came from deep.
The terrifying reality for Utah Jazz fans is that Clarkson has not been a consistent enough three-point shooter throughout his career to justify such a large volume of three-point attempts. He’s a 33.9% career three-point shooter. That’s solid, but it’s not necessarily a figure that would inspire most coaches to have him launch the 9.2 attempts per contest he’s averaging in 2021-22.
He’s hitting 21.7% of those attempts. That is a fundamentally massive problem. In all likelihood, he’ll regress to some kind of mean as the season progresses. With such a steep hill to climb, he’d almost have to. With that said, Clarkson’s shooting efficiency may prove the biggest obstacle to contention for this Utah Jazz club in 2021-22.
All told, Utah Jazz fans have no reason to panic. The team still sits at 7-3, an impressive record. A two-game skid is an inevitable part of even an elite team’s season. Hopefully, they can bounce back in a rematch against the Atlanta Hawks tomorrow evening.