Familiar Flaws Haunt Jazz In Loss To Knicks

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – The Utah Jazz lost to the New York Knicks Wednesday night 112-100, The loss marked the second loss in as many nights for the Jazz who were blown out by the Brooklyn Nets Tuesday night 130-96.

The loss drops the Jazz to just 4-4 after a 4-2 start to the season, and 3-2 on the road after opening the year a perfect 3-0.

The Jazz blew an 18 point first-half lead, and a 12 point halftime lead allowing the Knicks to enter the fourth quarter with a three-point lead before eventually falling by 12.

Ultimately, the Jazz were undone by familiar flaws that have been apparent throughout the season.

The @utahjazz fall to the @nyknicks and drop back-to-back games for the first time this season. #TakeNote #UTAatNYK https://t.co/YsNJ4iThBF

— KSL Sports (@kslsports) January 7, 2021

Jazz Scorers Aren’t Scoring

The most common problem for the Jazz this season has been that the team’s scorers simply aren’t doing their jobs. Every NBA team is built to cover as many of the necessary skills as possible to win games, and when one of those skills fail, that team won’t win games.

Tonight Donovan Mitchell, Mike Conley, and Bojan Bogdanovic combined to shoot 13-47 from the floor, including 3-23 from the three-point line for just 38 points.

Just as if Rudy Gobert was to forget how to defend the paint, or Royce O’Neale ceased to rebound, the Jazz would be in trouble. The problem against New York is that all three of the Jazz scoring safety valves failed and in the starting lineup and it repeatedly dug the team too big of a hole to climb out of.

Donovan Mitchell and Bojan Bogdanovic are a combined 6-22 from the floor and 3-12 from three.

Mitchell is -14 and Bogey is -17.

Jazz hanging close despite their go-to scorers from last season shooting poorly once again.

— Ben Anderson (@BensHoops) January 7, 2021

After consecutive good games from Mitchell that appeared to be an end to his early-season slump, he shot just 8-23 from the floor and 2-10 from three for 18 points. He also had four turnovers, failed to attempt a free-throw, and was a game worst -20.

It feels like he needs time away from the court to get his mind right, but the Jazz don’t have two consecutive days off until January 24 and 25.

Mitchell had a strong reaction to the team’s early play, specifically the question about whether the team could fix these issues. You can see his response in the tweets below.

"If we continue to sit here and feel depressed and upset you know it's not going to change. I'm not saying we're expecting this just click at some point in time we got to do the work…

— Ben Anderson (@BensHoops) January 7, 2021

"It's just a matter of we can't continue to let teams just come in and just do whatever they want. And I'm not worried, but it's definitely something where it's like, okay we got to do it."

— Ben Anderson (@BensHoops) January 7, 2021

Jazz Getting Cooked By Guards

The Jazz have now been burned by high scoring guards on back to back nights. Kyrie Irving scored 29 points against the Jazz, but his 7-7, 18 point first quarter in Brooklyn ended that game before halftime.

Against New York, Austin Rivers scored 23 points, including 14 of the final 16 Knicks points to seal the Jazz fate. Unfortunately, Royce O’Neale experienced the majority of the damage face to face as he was tasked with defending the opposing guards during these stretches.

The first five points of Rivers run came on broken plays, one where he ended up hitting a tough step-back three over Rudy Gobert. The second on a running floater after the ball was deflected into the backcourt.

Austin Rivers tried to envision the fans at MSG during his big 4th quarter performance tonight: pic.twitter.com/JcQZmD6Ek2

— Knicks Videos (@sny_knicks) January 7, 2021

However, the final three three-point shots came in near one on one coverage from O’Neale.

First, Gobert and O’Neale got mixed up on a simple switch between Rivers and Julius Randle where the Jazz wing needed to switch out onto Randle on the perimeter with Gobert dropping in coverage. He didn’t.

But instead of Randle hoisting a three (he was 0-5 on the night) Rivers ran back behind Randle on a dribble hand-off and took an uncontested three as O’Neale debated whether to stick with Randle or defend Rivers. O’Neale died on the screen in a late contest which gave the Knicks a 104-98 lead.

Then, after a Jazz miss, Rivers waved away his teammates to create space as he knew he was going to operate off a simple screen from Randle once again. Despite Rivers having hit three straight shots, O’Neale inexplicably got turned around on the screen, then went under against Randle, which allowed Rivers to dribble into an easy three to build a 107-98 lead.

Finally, out of a timeout, Rivers simply isolated against O’Neale, beat the Jazz wing off the dribble to get inside the perimeter, then fooled O’Neale with a few step back moves before sinking a three to extend the Knicks lead to 10 at 110-100.

14 PTS in the 4th, 23 in the game for @AustinRivers25 to lead the @nyknicks to three straight wins. #PhantomCam pic.twitter.com/iMSiMMaRxt

— NBA (@NBA) January 7, 2021

Truthfully, the final three was a tough shot, and O’Neale’s defense was adequate, Rivers just hit a better shot.

However, the lapses on Rivers other two three-point makes were harder to swallow. Quin Snyder has often boasted about O’Neale’s play admitted that there were mistakes to close the game.

“He made a couple of really tough shots but he also had a couple, where we had breakdowns where we got lost in matchups and he got wide-open looks,” Snyder said. “Those are the kind of things, if you give those up, it makes it even harder to slow somebody down.”

The Jazz do have Shaquille Harrison who is a notable defender stuck as the 10th man on the roster in a nine-man rotation. With Mitchell, Conley, Joe Ingles, and Jordan Clarkson all in the guard rotation ahead of him, it might be difficult to find minutes, but if the Jazz continue to struggle in isolation matchups on the perimeter, a player with Harrison’s defensive reputation may have to find his way into the lineup.

Jazz Need Pace

The Jazz built their 18 point first-half lead thanks to Knicks turnovers, missed shots, and their own quick-hitting offense. In the second half, all three of those elements disappeared.

The Knicks shot just 2-10 from three in the first half and had 11 turnovers. That allowed the Jazz to shoot 53 percent from the floor and 42 percent from three by finding easy looks in transition.

In the second half, the Knicks shot 6-12 from three and had just one turnover, which kept the Jazz from getting out and running.

The Knicks are shooting just 12-29 from the floor and have 8 turnovers.

It has just given the Jazz too many extra opportunities to score.

Jazz up 44-28 as a result.

— Ben Anderson (@BensHoops) January 7, 2021

As a result, the Jazz shot just 35 percent from the floor and 24 percent from three. The Jazz gave up 68 second-half points after holding New York to 44 in the first half while scoring just 44 of their own in the third and fourth quarters.

“It’s harder to run when you’re taking the ball out of the net,” Snyder said. “I thought in the third quarter we got some good looks. But if we’re not scoring, and if they’re scoring on us, we still have to figure out where we need to push the ball up the court.”

The Jazz ran well against the Portland Trail Blazers to open the season and again in their 130-109 victory over the San Antonio Spurs on Sunday. It’s disappeared over most of the last two games, and it’s cost the Jazz a chance to get easy baskets and victories.

The Jazz now travel to Milwaukee to face the Bucks. The game tips-off Friday at 6 pm MT on AT&T SportsNet.