Utah Jazz rally in fourth quarter, fall short against Heat

The Utah Jazz made a valiant effort in the fourth quarter of last night’s contest against the Miami Heat. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to compensate for a putrid first three quarters, resulting in a 111-105 defeat.

There may be moral victories to gain from this loss. The Jazzman were down an astonishing 95-69 heading into the fourth quarter. That’s the type of deficit that often inspires head coaches to bring on the bench mob and fight another day. Unfortunately for Jared Butler, Trent Forrest and company, Quin Snyder didn’t give up on his troops in this contest. In fact, only 9 members of the Utah Jazz suited up throughout this entire contest.

The gamble almost paid off, as the Jazz outscored the Heat 36-16 in the final frame. When you win a fourth quarter by 20 points, and ultimately lose the game anyway, it’s pretty clear that something went wrong.

Utah Jazz die by the 3

It’s an old basketball cliche we’ve already used in reference to the Jazzmen once this season: you live by the 3, and you die by the 3. It’s probably the principle that held off the three-point revolution for so many decades, and it’s one that Quin Snyder may want to consider moving forward.

This Utah Jazz offense looked particularly broken in the third quarter, where they shot just 1/10 from three-point land. In a potentially related matter, a mere 2 Jazz field goals were assisted on in that same period. The frustration festering among the Jazz was palpable. The ball wasn’t moving, and the players weren’t moving without it. There was a widespread failure to execute throughout the entire quarter, as the Heat continued to pull further away.

Generally speaking, the Jazzmen didn’t shoot the 3 very well in this contest. Bojan Bogdanovic‘s performance saved the final three-point percentage from looking horrific, as he hit an impressive 6/13 of his shots. Sadly, Jordan Clarkson was 4/13, Donovan Mitchell was 3/10, Royce O’Neale was 1/5 and Joe Ingles was 1/4.

Maybe we can attribute this result to the inherent variance in mass three-point shooting. One hot player does not typically make for a victory with so many cold teammates, and Bogey’s teammates were particularly icy against the Heat on Saturday. Hopefully, the Jazz’s 3-point shooting will begin to normalize as the season regresses. If not, Snyder may be forced to find a wrinkle in the game plan.

Utah Jazz fourth quarter defense

The Jazzmen do deserve credit for the fight they demonstrated in the fourth quarter of this contest. They held Miami to 16 points with a combination of typical Gobert-led rim protection and furious close-outs on Miami’s three-point attempts.

Obviously, the Jazz deserve credit for their fourth quarter offense as well. Those 36 points came as a result of some three-point luck that landed a little too late. The Jazz went 6/15 from three-point range in the closing quarter. It was an impressive effort, but it evidently was not enough.

While three-point shooting is notoriously volatile, effortful defense like the Jazz played in the fourth quarter of this game is entirely portable. For all of Rudy Gobert’s elite prowess on that end, the Jazz’s Defensive Rating of 106.78 has slid all the way down to 11th in the league in 2021-22. The same effort and attention to detail they demonstrated in the fourth quarter of last night’s contest would likely go a long way towards getting them back to their winning ways.

The Utah Jazz have now dropped 2 consecutive games. It’s still too early to sound any alarm bells. They’ll hope to bounce back against the Philadelphia 76ers on Tuesday evening.