The Utah Jazz suck.
They’re awful. They’re inconsistent. They lack explosive offense and clutch defense. They lose to bad teams at home and worse teams on the road. In no way whatsoever should they be allowed into the playoffs, as they will surely get swept by whoever they play, and swept in a very boring fashion.
Jazz fans everywhere should be frustrated, upset, and probably ashamed of the way that the Jazz are playing. It isn’t good. It won’t get better.
Of course, this is an overreaction article (one of my favorite things to write) that focuses on the Jazz’s recent slide downward. I love the Jazz. Donovan Mitchell is a great player, and Rudy Gobert, despite whatever Twitter threads claim, is an elite defensive player. Mike Conley and Bojan Bogdonovic do fit this team, and they do help the team to win.
Then why this article? Because the Utah Jazz have spiraled down into another ill-timed losing streak.
Breaking it Down
Since the All-Star break, the Jazz are 0-3. That’s not too bad, right? Once again, reason escapes my grasp, as I am overreacting.
The problem with being 0-3 has to do with who the Jazz lost to, where they lost and the ways that they’ve lost. The Jazz have taken losses to the Spurs, Rockets and Suns, all at home. Yeah, they lost to the Suns. By 20. More on that later.
San Antonio
First of all, the loss to the Spurs. They beat the Jazz in Utah, 113-104. Not quite a double-digit loss, but it sure felt like it. It seemed like Utah could close to within three or four points, then the Spurs would pull away. While the Spurs had six players scoring in the double-digits, the Jazz barely had five, and not a single Jazzman scored over 20 points.
Was one of our stars out? Nope. There were no injuries for the Jazz. Only Ed Davis was out, a coach’s decision. Were we experimenting with minutes? Not really, we had our usual rotations. Did we shoot poorly? Not really, we shot 43 percent, a little lower than average. We just didn’t shoot enough it seems.
Did we defend well? Nope. We had a defensive rating of 111.9, which would put the Jazz at 24th in the league.
The Spurs are a below-average team without a single All-Star (this year), while the Jazz are well above .500 (for now) and boast two All-Stars. The Jazz losing to the Spurs is bad. Not horrific, not terrible, not even awful – but it is bad.
Houston
After the last bout with Houston, an intense back and forth with plenty of action and perhaps the best game of the season, the Jazz forgot everything they learned in that victory. The Rockets were able to play on their own small-ball terms, negating Gobert and out-defending the Jazz.
Ponder on that for a second. Gobert had, in 34 minutes, 12 points, 6 rebounds, and a -12 in the plus/minus category. The Rockets, who have become the poster team for defensive laziness, played better defense than the Jazz, the supposed nose-to-the-grindstone, old school defensive team. Yet it was the Jazz who allowed Russell Westbrook and James Harden to go off for a combined 72 points, while the Rockets only allowed two players to score over 20.
If the Jazz have to play the Rockets in the first round of the playoffs, they’d be lucky not to get swept.
Phoenix
The Suns beat the Jazz 131-111. This is where the overreaction isn’t really an overreaction. This loss was an especially bad one. To start with, the Suns are very, very bad. They’ve surprised a couple teams during the season, but those teams were surprised on bad shooting nights or on nights when they didn’t have their best players.
Utah didn’t have those excuses. They started their usual starters, it just so happened to be that their usual starters played horribly. Not a single starter for the Jazz finished the night with a positive plus/minus. Mitchell netted himself a nice 38 points, but they were empty points that made little difference in the overall outcome of the game. He needed 20 more points to actually impact the final outcome of the game.
If the Jazz are unable to beat the Suns, who are currently 13th in the West, then what chance do they have against any of the actual playoff teams?
Final Verdict
The Utah Jazz are an inconsistent team incapable of continually performing at their best. Their hopes of winning a playoff series are getting smaller and smaller. They’ve lost to three Western Conference teams in a row, all at home, all by at least nine points. Utah looks confused and uncertain on how to continue.
The Real Final Verdict
The Utah Jazz are a good team, one of the best in the league. Are they struggling with consistency and rotation? Absolutely. Are their questions to be answered? Of course. But what they need to focus on is staying confident and finding their rotations. They have two All-Stars who are capable of leading the team, and if both are hot, they can beat any team on any given night.
I still believe that the Jazz are more than capable of reaching the Western Conference Finals. However, the question is if they will perform to the best of their abilities and make the most of their talent.
