The Utah Jazz are falling apart at the worst time
The Utah Jazz are supposed to be contenders for the NBA championship. Last night, they suffered their fourth consecutive lost, dropping a contest to the Dallas Mavericks 114-100.
As the fourth and fifth seeds in the Western Conference, these teams may very well face each other in the first round. If last night was a playoff preview, Jazz fans couldn’t have liked what they saw.
Utah Jazz offense falls apart
In case you’ve lost track of basketball, here’s a tip: 100 points doesn’t win you a lot of games in the NBA in 2021-22. This typically explosive Utah Jazz offense grinded to an abrupt halt in last night’s action.
They have excuses. Rudy Gobert was a late scratch. In the absence of both him and Hassan Whiteside, the Jazz didn’t have the pick-and-roll finisher that their offense relies on.
That doesn’t account for them barely cracking the century mark. Donovan Mitchell had one of his worst games of the season, finishing with 12 points on 4/13 shooting from the field. The team’s leading scorer was Rudy Gay, who finished with 18 points on 8/14 shooting.
To summarize the game: the team’s leading scorer was Rudy Gay.
Utah Jazz stacking odds against themselves
After four straight losses, the Jazz find themselves fifth in the Western Conference. They’d have to win 5 of their remaining 7 games in order to finish the season with 50 wins.
The last team to win the NBA championship with under 50 regular season wins was the 1994-95 Houston Rockets. Before that? The 1977-78 Washington Bullets.
History tells us that typically, the team that ends up being the best in the league tends to look like the best team in the league first.
Frankly, the Utah Jazz haven’t looked like that very often this season.
Utah Jazz still have time
All hope isn’t lost. The Jazz know how reliant they are on Rudy Gobert. Any loss in his absence comes with an asterisks.
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At the same time, they need to get their act together swiftly. Otherwise, we’ll be writing articles about how the Utah Jazz should best navigate their rebuild sooner than later.