The Utah Jazz have not had the road trip that they wanted to have, but that might be a good thing. 

When I wrote my last Jazz recap, they were 6-1, playing a dominant brand of basketball that looked to be the best in the league. As of today, the Jazz are 7-3 after facing the Atlanta Hawks on the road, then dropping two games in a row, one to the Miami Heat, and the other to the Orlando Magic. 

Of course, it’s good that they beat the Hawks, who are a good young, explosive team. They even beat them without Donovan. But I’m going to explain why it’s a good thing they lost to the Heat and Magic. 

Why It’s Good

The Jazz lost to the Heat 115-118 and to the Magic 100-107. It would be easy to say that’s the end of the story, and that the Miami Heat are simply better than the Jazz, and that the Magic caught the Jazz on an off night. 

However, these games were really valuable games for the Jazz to play, regardless of the result. Donovan Mitchell had his game of the year, dropping a 37 point performance against the Heat. Even though he struggled against the Magic, only scoring 21 points, it was at the end of a three-game road trip, and he took too many threes again. I wouldn’t focus on that result.

Prior to this stretch, he was still leading the team in points per game, but he was rather inefficient and shot far too many threes. He’s still been less than great from three, but he’s become more efficient inside, taking better shots and making them at a higher rate than he was before. 

Mitchell is the most important factor to the Jazz’s success as a team. Getting him going on offense, even if it means dropping two games, is key to getting the season going well. 

Ironing Out Some Issues

This stretch also showed some of the weaknesses Utah has as a team. For one, we saw how bad our perimeter defense can be. Against Miami, Utah allowed 52% from three. Granted, the Heat only shot 21 threes in the game, but if just one more of those shots rims out, the game goes to overtime. 

In both the Miami and Orlando games, the Jazz’s perimeter defense collapsed too easily on drives, allowing too much penetration to guards, who then shot it or dished it to open teammates. On this road trip, the Jazz allowed opposing teams to shoot 50% from the field, which is far too high, especially going up against an efficient team like Miami, who shot 60% from the field. 

Seeing the defense collapse early in the season shows Coach Quin Snyder exactly where the problems are, and I’m sure he will continue to address those as the season continues. 

It’s also good to note that the Jazz strategically sat Mike Conley out during the Magic game, and the Jazz seemed to miss him. Learning how to play without him shouldn’t be exactly new to the Jazz, as they’ve played quite a few games when he’s been injured, but the new rotation players like Eric Paschall, Hassan Whiteside, and Jared Butler have to develop chemistry with other players at the point, something that will come after a few games. 

A Big Problem

I know I said it was fine that the Jazz lost those games, and there’s a lot to learn from how the Jazz lost. That doesn’t mean I’m not going to mention the French elephant in the room. 

Rudy Gobert played awful against Miami and had some struggles against Atlanta and Orlando. 

It makes sense that he probably couldn’t maintain the insane level of play he was on, especially offensively. He had a respectable 13 points and 15 rebounds against the Hawks, and an even more respectable 21 and 15 against Orlando. 

Against the Heat, he had 8 points and 8 rebounds. He couldn’t do anything to Heat center Bam Adebayo, and he was being boxed out better than I’ve seen him be in a long time. Most concerning? His plus-minus rating, which clocked in at an astounding -20, second-worst in the game. 

I think he will right things, and as the Jazz play more games against quality centers and shooting teams, that things will be better, but keep your eyes on it, for now. 

Checking on the Crystal Basketball

In last week’s recap, I made some predictions about how the next few games would go. It’s time to check up on those.

  • Donovan Mitchell averages 28 points per game. Turned out, the ball knew he would explode against the Heat. This one is correct. 
  • Hassan Whiteside has a 4-block game. Close, but no cigar. He had three blocks against Atlanta, but only one block a game in the other two games. 
  • Utah beats Miami. Well, again, close. Three points close, actually. 
  • Utah loses to Atlanta. The jury’s out on this one, as the Jazz could still lose tonight against the Hawks. 
  • Rudy Gobert has a 20-20 game. Nope. He didn’t, coming close only against Orlando. 

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