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Three thoughts Utah Jazz Loss 132-106 to the Los Angeles Clippers Salt Lake Tribune Jazz was won by author Andy Larsen.
1. It was a pretty awful defense
The Clippers scored 132 points in 93 possession on Saturday night. That’s 141 offensive ratings.
Under no circumstances will the Jazz tilt give the team points for as many points as a few assets. Typically, midfield defense is the hallmark of Jazz, and it only roasted and roasted when Jazz landed a Game 3 defeat.
In Game 2, Jazzs’ defense was great with Rudy Gobert on the field (defensive rating 97) and poor when Derrick Favors was on the field (169 defensive rating). But tonight it was bad no matter who was on the floor: 128 defensive ratings with Gobert and 138 with Favors.
And it wasn’t the Jazz transition defense that was usually a Jazz problem when the defense failed in the regular season. The Clippers played almost exclusively in midfield, and still cut Jazz. I want to show you examples.
Miscommunication
Here, Jazz tries to defend himself against the threat of Kawhi Leonard, so Rudy Gobert comes and doubles. But then the Jazz really doesn’t know who is going to shut Marcus Morris in the corner: is it Gobert or Bogdanovic? The result is an easy Paul George dunk.
Or here: George just comes off the screen, and Joe Ingles and Royce ONeale don’t agree on who should guard it. It is open to three of the top players in the league. Splash.
Does not match
I’m worried about the popularity defending the 5-out look. As here, the Clippers perform a simple pick-and-pop action with Reggie Jackson and Nicolas Batum. Favors have to close the Batums shot, but then can’t defend at Batums station. Gobert is able to close and influence the drive, but the popularity doesn’t have that length.
Errors
This isn’t smart from Jordan Clarkson: he can’t leave Nicolas Batums ’body to go under this Ivica Zubac screen, while Luke Kennard can just pass it on to Batum so easily.
Misdirected priorities
Okay, I fought with the title there. But look, wouldn’t it have been great if Gobert had been involved in this game and not complaining to the referee? Maybe he could have affected the shot if he had been in place!
Jazz is a good defensive team, and the Clippers just made a lot of shots tonight. But Jazz made it pretty easy from time to time and showed very few particles that made a huge difference in games 1-2. In doing so, they lost the opportunity to put a foot in Clippers ’throat.
2. Can Jazz get more passes against the Clippers defense?
Jazz only had 15 assists in game 3.
They also only had 15 assists in Game 2, so this may not be catastrophic. But an average of 24 matches per regular season, so it shows what the Clippers defense is doing to the Jazz: making them a little stagnant, a little easy to guard.
Gobert said it well: Clippers ’entire defensive game plan is built to take away Jazz’s first offensive action. They do this by either switching screens or doubling them.
So here’s an example: Donovan Mitchell has the ball, and Joe Ingles gets up to put him on screen for an interesting call first, given that Paul George is his husband. But Mitchell drives for George and gets Leonard, George and even Marcus Morris surrounded.
What is happening here? Some kind of recognition of the situation. Given Gobert’s location, it’s hard for Mitchell to attack beyond the floor anyway: Morris can help. So Mitchell has to take this first step in and then find an open man.
Of course, the other part of the grants is making a shot and shooting, and I thought Jazz sometimes tried to be too cute tonight. Heres Ingles takes over the feed after a great reading by Clarkson, and Ingles doesn’t shoot, he just drives and throws a hard float.
I don’t get it sometimes: Ingles was hot tonight after the first quarter, getting 11 points thanks to an outside shoot. He then bypasses that cut-off, is missing the float and appealed to the referee and can’t get back to the defense.
Heck, while he’s not going to shoot it, he has either Georges Niang open for an early swing pass or Miye Oni open for a late threesome.
I just want to see more ball movement; faster, faster, decisions. When the Clippers sometimes help aggressively, there are people open, but Jazz has to find them.
3. The bench was very bad
Derrick Favors has four points in this series. Georges Niang has three. Miye Oni is zero.
These are the three rotational players that don’t give Jazz anything offensive. And honestly, the defense of all three has been weak, as have I highlighted the Favors numbers there, but Oni is still breaking too much and Niang has sometimes been a turning point.
Niang also led the team with three. He only played for 10 minutes.
Yeah, and then Jordan Clarkson had a very rough game that only fired from the field 5-16.
The possible return of Mike Conleys would help a lot when I honestly take a few of these players. But even if he returns, Niang will probably get a few more minutes, and he will have to make better decisions.
The popularity will certainly get minutes in both directions, but I think it’s the case that Quin Snyder plays him too much. Even if Gobert had finished tonight, he would have played only 34 minutes. Gobert hadn’t played amazingly, but I think Jazz’s best chances were definitely with him there. Favors rim protection have not been stars, and Gobert can switch games in a hurry.
Also think of Ersan Ilyasova: not a great individual defender, but gives you a little more 3-point shooting to open up space for Mitchell.
Regardless: we know that Favors, Niang and Clarkson can play better than they do now. Jazz needs more from those guys; it can’t just be their starting team that carries them all the time.
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