The Utah Jazz's poor stretch continues. They have now lost nine straight games after losing to the Miami Heat 115-109. For as bleak as the final results are, there is at least some progress from their individual players. First it was Darryn Peterson, and now it's Ace Bailey.
Peterson continues to show progress with another excellent statline (25 points on 10-for-19 shooting to go with four threes). He's bound to hit a rookie wall at some point, but at least he's showing consistency following a somewhat lackluster start. Now Bailey is starting to get in on the action.
Bailey has been pretty bad efficiency-wise in Year 2. It's not looking pretty. His three-pointer has completely abandoned him, diminishing him as an offensive threat. Averaging nearly 12 points, Bailey's 45% shooting from the field and 22.6% shooting from three is not a welcome sight. However, tonight was a different story.
On the night, Bailey had 23 points to go with 10-for-15 shooting from the field. Most encouraging of all, Bailey shot three-for-five from distance. At long last, Bailey finally broke out from three. If he can build off this, this could be the first step towards him becoming a menace on the offensive side of the floor.
It doesn't erase that the Jazz's awful start is only getting worse, but at least amongst everything that is working against them, they are at least fighting, and they're seeing their young players step up.
The comeback attempt is what's most encouraging
Peterson and Bailey weren't the only ones who looked good. Isaiah Collier suddenly doing a solid Stephen Curry is what got Utah back into the game in the fourth quarter. Who knew Tony Bradley, of all people, would actually make himself stand out? Because of his involvement in the Jazz's fourth-quarter comeback attempt, he had a plus/minus of plus-17.
The Jazz could have easily rolled over and died when the Heat started pulling away. Losing by 23 in the third quarter when already being losers of eight straight coming in would make anyone lose faith, but Utah kept it and started pushing back.
Over the past few games, it's actually been the opposite. They were punching back against their opponents until they more or less ran out of gas. When the team makes a valiant effort to come back, it's another (small) step in the right direction. The Jazz need to win some games, but at least they're not taking this bad stretch lying down.
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