The Utah Jazz may be developing a bad habit of playing down to their competition. Last night’s 111-100 loss against the Indiana Pacers marked the third time this season that the club lost to a sub .500 team. Unfortunately, that doesn’t seem to be the only bad habit the Jazz are developing: dust-ups, skirmishes and ejections are becoming routine for this team. Last night’s conflict was particularly intense, resulting in ejections for Rudy Gobert, Donovan Mitchell and Joe Ingles in the fourth quarter. We’ll touch more on that later, but the Utah Jazz can’t pin this loss on the refs. They lost this game of their own volition.
That’s a predictable outcome in a game where T.J. McConnell (21 points, 8 rebounds, 5 assists) outplays Mike Conley (6 points, 8 assists). Otherwise, it’s worth noting that the Utah Jazz did get a strong performance from Donovan Mitchell. He scored 26 points on 11/20 shooting from the field and 3/7 shooting from three-point range while chipping in an additional 5 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 steals.
We’re not naming him as a stud, for the simple reason that it feels disingenuous to name 2 Utah Jazz studs in a game they lost to an inferior opponent by double digits. One other Jazzman came a little closer to saving this one for the team, and earned the stud designation in the process.
Utah Jazz stud: Rudy Gobert
We’re not going to address the fact that Gobert was probably the primary culprit in last night’s brawl here. That’s only because we’re going to address it in detail elsewhere.
In terms of basketball, Gobert did everything he could to salvage this game for the Utah Jazz. He finished with 19 points on 7/10 shooting from the field, 11 rebounds and a block.
Gobert took a particularly strong stand in the third quarter, scoring 11 of his 19 points in that frame. He was particularly aggressive, calling for the ball with inside position more frequently than he generally does.
Even before the two turned an NBA game into a WWE-esque spectacle, it felt as if Gobert might be taking his matchup with Myles Turner a little personally. Turner’s 3.2 blocks per game pace the NBA by a wide margin, and he may be the biggest threat to Gobert’s Defensive Player of the Year candidacy of any center in the league.
None of which excuses the events that unfolded, but it may explain why Gobert was diving to the rim out of pick-and-roll sets with a little extra gumption through the third quarter. Utah Jazz fans will take a motivated Stifle Tower however they get him.
He was more aggressive on offense on (yet another) night where the three-ball refused to fall for the Utah Jazz. They shot just 9/32 from three-point range in this contest. If Rudy Gobert hadn’t provided the squad with a little bit of extra inside scoring, this one could have gotten uglier.
In terms of the score, that is.
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.
Utah Jazz dud: Team composure
The Utah Jazz are NBA championship contenders. It’s about time they carry themselves as such.
To review: Rudy Gobert (probably inadvertently) tripped Myles Turner following a contested layup attempt late in the fourth quarter. Turner seemed to have assumed the trip was intentional, and proceeded to shove Gobert. Gobert then pulled Turner to the floor by his shorts. That’s when you-know-what hit the fan.
Both Donovan Mitchell and Joe Ingles made physical contact with referees. There’s a high probability both will face suspensions. There’s a possibility Gobert will as well. Last night degenerated into a full-blown melee, and it was completely unacceptable.
None of which is to say that the Indiana Pacers are without fault. Myles Turner distinctly shoved Gobert after what was, by all accounts, a basketball occurrence. It was unwarranted. The problem is that Gobert’s response was disproportionate.
These guys are human beings. We recognize that. Still, Rudy Gobert needed to maintain his composure and not respond. At 102-92 with about 4 minutes remaining, this game was still (remotely) winnable. From the moment that Gobert made a decision that resulted in 3 key Utah Jazz players receiving ejections, it was pretty clearly over.
In an 82 game season, some losses will inevitably be more difficult than others. Hopefully, the Utah Jazz can learn two lessons from this one: don’t play down to your competition, and don’t indulge opposing teams in childish behavior.