Turnovers, poor shooting hurt Jazz in tough loss to Boston


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BOSTON — The Utah Jazz were on the precipice of opening a four-game road trip 2-0, after Gordon Hayward hit a fall-away jump shot with mere seconds left in a game against the Boston Celtics.

However, with a late defensive switch and a Marcus Smart pass that threaded the needle to Tyler Zeller, the Celtics held off a late Jazz run, picking up an 85-84 win over the Celtics.

Utah trailed by as many as nine in the final quarter, trailing 70-61 with 8:07 left. However, the Jazz closed the game on a 23-13 run, as Hayward hit the final shot with one second left to give the Jazz an 84-83 lead.

The final defensive call will be debated by fans and pundits. However, it is important to note Jazz coach Quin Snyder has consistently used center Rudy Gobert to guard the in-bounder on a last-second play, and have been successful with the philosophy.

It would be easy to blame Utah’s loss on tired legs, after getting to Boston early Wednesday morning on the second-half of a back-to-back with Memphis. Instead, it was a small window that allowed the Celtics to pick up the win in a game that went back-and-forth from the beginning.

A few points stood out in the loss.

Turnovers hurt Jazz --------------------

There have been many positives with the Utah Jazz as of late, but one of the biggest disappointments has been the team’s turnover-friendly ways. Utah had 13 turnovers, while Boston had just three. In a win against Memphis Tuesday, the team had 16 turnovers. Quite simply, turning the ball over is becoming a problem for the team and it has to be solved.

Now, patience is needed with the team, as they are still learning how to play with each other in their new roles. However, it is impossible to expect the team to win consistently when it is consistently turning the ball over much more than its opponents.

For instance, Boston scored 13 points off Utah’s turnovers, while the Jazz scored no points off turnovers.

Three-point shooting is horrendous

It’s a common fact that 3-point shooting takes fresh legs to be successful, and the Jazz indicated they had fatigue with this statistic. Utah finished just 3-of-19 from distance, while Boston finished 8-of-27. When you combine the fact Boston had more threes with the fact the Jazz didn’t dominate the paint (36-32 Utah advantage), it left the Jazz open for a performance.

Exum, Ingles have their struggles

Dante Exum and Joe Ingles didn’t have their best nights. Ingles finished with three points on 1-for-5 shooting, while Exum made just one 3-point shot on the night. While it was a defensive game, with both teams coming off back-to-backs, the pair’s inability to produce much offensively allowed Boston to take an 18-3 advantage in the small forward scoring comparison, with Jae Crowder finishing with 18 points.

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Jon Oglesby

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