The Utah Jazz survived the Memphis Grizzlies but serious concerns remain

Even against the worst team in the NBA, the Memphis Grizzlies, the Utah Jazz struggle.

The Utah Jazz won their third game in 10 outings on Friday. They defeated the hapless Memphis Grizzlies who are just 1-8 on the year without Ja Morant, who remains suspended. The Jazz, who finally won their first away game on Friday, have defeated the Grizzlies twice this season. Their other lone win so far has come against the aging and slow LA Clippers.

The Jazz, who saw a good shooting night from the often maligned Jordan Clarkson, were able to fend off a Grizzlies team to win not only their first road win but also their first win during the In-Season Tournament. Clarkson wasn’t the only one who had a nice night, as John Collins, Lauri Markkanen, and Ochai Agbaji also had big shooting nights as well; going a combined 19-27 from the floor.

While Collins and Markkanen are often having good nights, Agbaji was in desperate need of one. While Clarkson has had good nights, he’s been bad to start the season, but the hope was that his shot would start falling eventually. Agbaji is still largely an unknown quantity, so giving him big minutes may result in some unknown outcomes. Seeing Agbaji play as well as he did for most of the game was something we were all hoping for from the second-year guard/forward.

Unfortunately, the team is still unable to figure out who is on their own team, as the Jazz had a whopping 19 turnovers, eight of which happened in the last 14 minutes of play. Seven of them were in the 4th quarter alone.

The Jazz won the game 127-121, and at times in the fourth, the two teams were tied, but with a few minutes to go in the third, the Jazz held a 21-point lead over the Grizzlies. They were cruising to a blowout before the team started coughing up the ball.

This has been the Jazz’s biggest issue all season, turning the ball over and at an alarming rate. Turnovers happen but not this often. The Jazz are the number one team in the NBA with the most turnovers. They currently average 17.9 per game, which is 1.2 more than the second-worst team in the NBA; The Detroit Pistons.

The Jazz are also 10th in the league in most fouls committed, giving too many teams too many free shots. It’s ironic, as the Jazz are 20th in free throws attempted. So not only are they sending guys to the line more often than most teams, they’re not going nearly as often as they should.

The Jazz edged out a win over a bad Grizzlies team, but maybe this is the turnaround point. Maybe this is the point in the season that this talented group can finally start putting things together.