The recent 3-game skid for the Utah Jazz is a hiccup against the longer season

It's no time to panic. The Utah Jazz have lost three in a row due to a poor defensive effort in three straight outings. The Jazz have fallen to 22-23, are 10th in the West, and the last team in the Play-In Tournament. They're also just fourth in the Northwest Division's standings. It's not been a great week for the Salt Lake City hoop heroes.

Yet, it's no time to panic. The Jazz's hot run over the last six or so weeks was not some flukey thing. They didn't just stroll into a bunch of games and get lucky. They beat a lot of the top teams in the NBA and did so effectively and efficiently. This is a team that has to be taken seriously every time you face them, so a three-game skid isn't going to ruin things for the Jazz.

But changes need to be made. It's not just enough to say "This is a good team, they'll find their way again". They aren't lost in the woods looking for a path home. They went in and didn't play defense in three straight games and it bit them in the rear. The Utah Jazz have got to make some sort of change to rectify things.

Clearly, some guys aren't cut out to be two-way NBA stars, and so their minutes shouldn't be what they are. Other guys play well on both ends of the court and should get more minutes. It's not a hard concept to grasp. Look at who's not playing good defense and stop playing them as much or at all.

Shore up the defensive rotations. Grab those struggling to grasp the concepts and drill them time and time again until the motions they need to take are second nature. The Jazz need to be better, they can't just assume the struggles will come to an end, they have to coach the struggles out of the team and remove the players who refuse to play differently.

It's what Utah Jazz head coach Will Hardy did a few weeks ago when he made major changes to the starting five. It may be time to start slashing minutes of certain bench guys in favor of getting minutes to others who actually play both ends of the court.