Utah Jazz falter against middling Hornets team
If the Utah Jazz seriously want to play for the NBA championship this season, they’ll need to wake up, and wake up quickly. Last night, they lost by a final score of 107-101 to a Charlotte Hornets team that is barely above .500 at 38-36.
We don’t mean to see the Hornets short. They have one of the brightest young cores in the National Basketball Association. Still, they’re led by a sophomore point guard. They shouldn’t be able to beat the Jazz this late in the season, yet here we are.
Utah Jazz offense falls short of elite
Oddly, this was supposed to be a shoot-out. The Jazz have the best Offensive Rating in the NBA (116.1), while the Hornets rank 8th in the same category (112.9). What fans got instead was a war of attrition.
Surprisingly, the Hornets managed to escape it.
The Jazz had six players produce double digit scoring efforts, led by Donovan Mitchell (26) and Jordan Clarkson (19). That sounds like a winning formula. It wasn’t.
After those six, only three more players cracked the rotation. They finished with three points (Rudy Gay), six (Royce O’Neale) and zero (Trent Forrest).
The Hornets struggled to put points up as well. They just managed to get six more on the scoreboard. They won this game by doing the little things.
Utah Jazz lose battle of the boards
The Jazz don’t normally get beat on the glass. Their rebound percentage of 52.2% ranks second in the NBA. They also don’t expect to get beat by the Charlotte Hornets. They rank 28th in the same category (48.4%).
It only goes to show that you can’t count any team out in any category in this league. The Hornets outrebounded the Jazz 45-38.
That was in spite of Rudy Gobert hauling in a whopping 19 boards. The Hornets got the job done as a collective, let by Mason Plumlee and Miles Bridges with 11 a piece.
Utah Jazz need to pick up the pieces
This game marked a third consecutive loss for the Jazzmen. They don’t have the excuse of injuries to lean on for this skid. Yes, Bojan Bogdanovic’s extended absence has hurt.
If that’s enough to cause the Jazz to spiral, they can give up on that Larry O’Brien trophy now.
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Hopefully, they’ll regroup and get back to their winning ways instead. They face a difficult Dallas Mavericks squad on Sunday.