Joe Ingles: ‘Series Motivates Me To Come Back Better Next Year’

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – Still fresh in his mind, the Playoff performance of Utah Jazz shooter Joe Ingles has not been sitting well with him.

He finished the regular season averaging 12.1 points, 4 rebounds and 5.7 assists per game. Once the postseason came, Ingles struggled.

“The last two weeks was the first time in my career where I have played that way,” Ingles said. “I was heavily forced to the right. They were blowing up every hand off or pick-and-roll. At first it hits you in the face and you try to work it out pretty quickly while the series is going on. Obviously, I wasn’t able to work it out quick enough and good enough. It still kills me inside that I wasn’t able to help our team out as much as I thought I should have and could have,” he added.

Ingles finished his fifth career playoff series averaging just 6.4 points, 4.8 rebounds and 5 assists per game during the five game series with the Houston Rockets. He shot 8-of-29 from the three-point-line for 27 percent.

Motivation To Improve

Through his five-year NBA career, all with the Utah Jazz, Ingles has improved every single season. But it was unfamiliar territory for the Australian to struggle in the postseason.

“Going into the offseason, it definitely motivates me in a pretty high level way to come back next year even better,” he said. “It’s something that is going to stick with me for way too many months, but I will go back and watch it [playoff series] and I will speak with coach [Quin Snyder] and figure out the best way to attack it,” Ingles added.

Personal Obstacles

During the season, Ingles had to overcome a major obstacle personally. In February, his son Jacob was diagnosed with autism and it really hit Ingles hard, which included an article that he wrote to announce his son’s diagnosis.

“I think the whole year for me was tough with the stuff with Jacob,” Ingles said. “From that time to the All-Star break, nothing else really mattered at that point,” he added.

Ingles and his wife Renae are now heavily involved in autism awareness and even held a “Autism Awareness Night” towards the end of the season against the Los Angeles Lakers.

“It was the toughest year of my career personally. It wasn’t my best year, but I am glad that it came out the way it did. I was able to clear my mind,” he said.