DeRozan Becomes Second Guard In Two Games To Torch Jazz Defense

SAN ANTONIO, Texas – After a stretch that saw the Utah Jazz win 19 of 21 games, the team has lost back to back games against the Houston Rockets and San Antonio Spurs. The Jazz fell in San Antonio 127-120 in large part due to another underwhelming defensive performance on the perimeter.

The Story

In the Utah Jazz last three losses, they’ve seen one common theme. High scoring wings are licking their chops to attack the Jazz perimeter defense, and they’re doing it with incredible success. 

In the Jazz loss to the New Orleans Pelicans, wing Brandon Ingram scored a career-high 49 points. 

In the Jazz loss to the Houston Rockets, wing Eric Gordon scored a career-high 50 points. 

In the Jazz loss to the San Antonio Spurs, wing DeMar DeRozan scored a season-high 38 points. 

DeMar DeRozan scores a season-high 38 PTS, guiding the @spurs to victory against Utah. pic.twitter.com/ZckXs3NbnX

— NBA (@NBA) January 30, 2020

Simply put, the Jazz perimeter defense is struggling against proven bucket-getters in the NBA and have lost three of their last seven games as a result. Despite having the seventh-best defensive rating in the NBA, the Jazz have surrendered some of their worst defensive outings of the season over the last two weeks. 

Against the Pelicans, the Jazz defensive rating was 123.2 while surrendering 138 points. Against the Rockets, the Jazz defensive rating was 115.6 while surrendering 126 points. Against the Spurs, the Jazz defensive rating was 127 while surrendering 127 points. 

“I think DeRozan had 38, that’s a big number,” Jazz coach Quin Snyder said, “But as I said, if we can adjust and not foul somebody, we can adjust our pick up points higher up against Eric Gordon, I think there’s a lot of subtle things I think that our focus just needs to improve. With that said, we’ve been defending really well up to that point and we’ve got to do better obviously.”

🌪👀 pic.twitter.com/TWvKVOZVEo

— San Antonio Spurs (@spurs) January 30, 2020

The Jazz have relied on Royce O’Neale to handle the opposing team’s best wing defender and in these three outings, he’s struggled. However, slowing the league’s best perimeter scorers can’t come down to one player, the Jazz need to make a better team effort to slow down the opposition.

Sometimes, the opposing offense is just better.

“I think we’ve just got to be more physical and be more aggressive,” Donovan Mitchell said, “We made adjustments as the game went on and I have faith and all of our guards were guarding, I think Royce did a hell of a job.”

Against the Spurs, O’Neale was often screened off of DeRozan and forced into mid-range shots, shots the Jazz want him to take. It just so happened the Spurs had their best mid-range shooting night of the season, connecting on 30-42 shots from that distance. The Jazz also struggled for the second consecutive game to keep the opponent off the foul line.

“Whether it’s isolation or pick and roll you’re going to give some things up,” Snyder said, “But you can’t give everything up. I thought the fact that we fouled as much as anything- he’s going to hit some shots, he’s got size, he’s athletic he can rise up, he shoots the ball, his release point is really high. But if we’re contesting those shots, he’s going to make some of them, you can’t foul him.”

There have been only 18 instances this season of any player in the NBA shooting 19 free-throws or more in a game. In their last two games, the Jazz sent Gordon to the line 20 times, while DeRozan attempted 19 free-throws. 

Jazz defense hasn't been perfect, but the Spurs are hitting some tough contested shots.

— Ben Anderson (@BensHoops) January 30, 2020

“They only missed 12 midranges shots the whole or something like that. They’re getting the shots we want them to take, it’s just a matter of how they’re taking them. Are they contested? Staying down, not fouling, I think that was the biggest thing tonight.”

Over the next seven games as the Jazz head into the All-Star break, they’ll face a cavalcade of potent wing scorers. The Jazz will face Jamaal Murray twice, who averages 17.6 points per game, Damian Lillard twice, who averages 28.8 points per game, James Harden averaging 36.1 points per game, Luka Doncic averaging 28.8 points per game, and Jimmy Butler averaging 20.2 points per game, the team’s perimeter defense will need to find a solution quickly or risk giving up more enormous scoring outings.

The Game

The majority of the Spurs damage offensively was done in the first half when the Jazz surrendered 70 points and allowed San Antonio to shoot 64 percent from the floor. The Jazz were able to hang around thanks to 10 made threes in 21 attempts, but were unable to match the Spurs offensive prowess overall. 

The Jazz were able to close the gap to within four and five points several times in the second half, but couldn’t get any closer thanks to the Spurs relentless shot-making. 

With Spurs forward LaMarcus Aldridge missing his second consecutive game with a thumb injury, the smaller San Antonio defense struggled to keep Rudy Gobert out of the paint. As a result, they were determined to make the French center earn his points at the free-throw line, a strategy that ultimately worked. 

we demand more dunks pic.twitter.com/J844PZMlcf

— Utah Jazz (@utahjazz) January 30, 2020

Gobert went to the line 18 times but connected on just nine attempts, and finished the night 17 points on 4-7 shooting from the floor. 

Much like the Houston loss, Mitchell once again carried the offensive load for the Jazz scoring 31 points on 9-20 shooting. He made all 10 of his free-throw attempts, matching his season-high for the fourth time this year. 

After a rough stretch of games from Jordan Clarkson, the reserve guard bounced back with a 20 points outing on 7-14 shooting. However, as a whole, the bench unit struggled. 

idk @JordanClarksons in transition seems like a handful pic.twitter.com/Uub6jWBVKb

— Utah Jazz (@utahjazz) January 30, 2020

The Jazz bench was outscored 54-40 and had an average plus-minus of -7.4. Reserve center Tony Bradley had a particularly rough outing as the Jazz were outscored by 16  in the 10:27 he was on the floor, forcing Snyder to turn to little-used Ed Davis for five minutes. Davis was the only Jazz player with a positive plus-minus, finishing +3 while recording only a single rebound during his time on the floor. 

The Big Picture

Losing the opening game of the three-game road trip could have major consequences for the Jazz. They now turn to the Denver Nuggets who have an identical 32-15 record to the Jazz on the second night of a back to back. The Nuggets last played Monday Tuesday night in a loss to the Memphis Grizzlies.

After Denver, the Jazz travel to face the Portland Trailblazers who though they only have a 21-27 record, have the best offensive rating in the NBA over the last 10 games. After falling to San Antonio, an 0-3 road trip became a potential reality. 

While it may feel like time to hit the panic button over the high scoring outputs the Jazz have given up in recent losses, the losses can be chalked up to some small sample size NBA irregularities. Career nights from Ingram and Gordon, while giving up a season-high 38 points on a record shooting night from midrange probably isn’t a strong indicator of the Jazz going forward. Still, the losses hurt.

Donovan Mitchell has become one of the most dangerous scorers in the NBA and should be named to the NBA All-Star Game before the Jazz face the Nuggets Thursday night. Mitchell has scored 30 points or more 14 times this season while scoring fewer than 20 points just 10 times all year.

Gobert should also expect to join Mitchell in Chicago. Despite losing two straight games, the Jazz have the fourth-best record in the West and should be represented by two players.