Utah Jazz: 1 stud and 2 duds from first home loss vs Pacers

Utah Jazz dud: Jordan Clarkson

Frankly, this is getting tiring.

Jordan Clarkson turned in another stinker for the Utah Jazz against the Pacers last night. He finished with 11 points on 3/14 shooting from the field and 2/10 from deep. At this point, his shooting efficiency on the year is almost comically bad. He’s hitting 34.5% of his field goal attempts, and 23.4% of his three-point attempts.

It’s painful to watch. Clarkson is getting to his spots as routinely as Jazz fans came to expect him to. He simply can’t convert the shots. Last night was no exception. Midway through the second quarter, Clarkson knocked down a difficult, off-balance long 2 that should have inspired hope in any Utah Jazz fan. Unfortunately, that hope was not justified in hindsight.

Clarkson’s slump has become a major obstacle for the contending Jazz team. It still stands to reason that he is likely to break out of it as the season progresses, however, the first dozen games of this season have demonstrated how drastically he’s capable of slumping for a prolonged period. There is very much a world in which Clarkson regains his form midseason, scorches the league for a couple of months, and falls back into a slump in time for the playoffs.

The Utah Jazz will be sunk if that’s the case. Last night, Clarkson’s poor shooting was arguably the main factor that sunk them against the Indiana Pacers. Mike Conley, as mentioned, was quiet. His 4 personal fouls mitigated his potential to be aggressive to some extent. Generally speaking, Donovan Mitchell would have to do something historic to make up for a combined 5/20 night from his two most talented backcourt mates.

Having said that, it’s worth noting that 14 of those 20 shots came from Clarkson. He shot the Jazzmen out of this contest, and if he can’t stop doing that soon, Coach Snyder may need to consider some sort of strategic shift.