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SALT LAKE CITY — Three thoughts on the Jazz's 112-104 loss to the Boston Celtics Saturday night from KSL.com's Utah Jazz beat writer, Andy Larsen.
1. Jazz repeatedly get burned on defense
The Celtics were without two starting wing players, Jae Crowder and Avery Bradley, and yet they still torched the Jazz repeatedly thanks to the difficult-to-guard combination of Isaiah Thomas and Al Horford (or Kelly Olynyk) pick-and-rolls and pick-and-pops.
The Jazz just didn't have an answer for it. Look at the stats, for one. Thomas scored 29 points on 9 of 16 shooting, Horford had 16 points on 6 of 9 shooting and Olynyk scored 19 on 8 of 11 shooting. Over and over again, the Celtics ran that simple action and got open shots. Of course, they're the eighth-best offense in the league thanks to that floor spacing and shooting ability, so it's not as if the Jazz let a bad opponent score too many points against them.
I wonder if Dallas' comeback Thursday played a role in the loss as well. In particular, the Jazz were repeatedly burned in that game against the Mavericks by switching. Mavs guards would go one on one against Rudy Gobert and score inside, or Dirk Nowitzki would shoot over a guard defending him. They did prevent 3-point attempts, so that was good, but overall, things went badly (and even worse when Gobert fouled out).
On Saturday, the Jazz, for the most part, didn't switch. That probably makes sense, because Thomas is probably even more dangerous against switching bigs than Seth Curry, for example. About Olynyk's game, for example, Utah head coach Quin Snyder said "When you commit attention and bodies to one player (read: Thomas), other guys get open shots. He hit some really clean looks and then he had a couple where he was on the move and he hit some tough shots, too. In that sense, basically, the only thing you can do is switch. We did that some, but he made shots."
Ultimately, Snyder and the team felt the problem was the game plan wasn't well-executed. "I think the way we handled some of the pick-and-rolls they were doing, some of the handoffs (was a problem)," Gordon Hayward said. "We just didn't execute what we were trying to do."
What the Jazz sometimes can do is what they call a "stay stunt" where a third man comes over and prevents the shot. They did that more in the second half, I thought, to some success. But when that third man is all the way in the corner, and a good shooter too, it makes it a difficult (and maybe ill-advised) stunt to pull off.
This is all to say, basically, that the Celtics are good, and it's difficult to stop a team when it can shoot 3s at every position.
2. Inconsistent contributions on offense
Here's one consistent contributor on offense: Hayward. He had another 30-point game on 10 of 19 shooting.
George Hill was relatively good, too, scoring 22 points on 7 of 16 shooting.
Everyone else didn't contribute much. Gobert scored 14 but forced some shots he probably shouldn't have taken and didn't get many easy looks that we're accustomed to seeing from him. Derrick Favors scored just six points, and while it was on 3 of 5 shooting, those shots didn't always come in the flow of the offense. That's been a trend this season because Gobert's become the better roll man. Joe Ingles took good shots but missed all five of his 3-point attempts.
The bench was a catastrophe. Trey Lyles scored eight points on 3 of 11 shooting, missing open shots and not doing a lot on defense. Dante Exum played just six minutes and went 1 of 4 with a turnover. Alec Burks, same line: 1 of 4 with a turnover. Even Joe Johnson: 1 of 4 (no turnover, though).
In the end, the Jazz's broadcast even gave the Subway Sub of the Game award to Olynyk.
Some of this was just shotmaking. You'd expect Ingles to make more open looks, and I hope Lyles is better than a 1-for-5 3-point shooter. But I was also pretty disappointed in some of the decision-making, and that's easier to control. Burks still takes bad pull-up shots. Johnson's overall pace means he takes some really difficult looks. Exum can't drive to the basket with centers already in the paint. And Lyles has to find a way to get himself easy looks, and no, I don't mean contested floaters.
Boston's was very good, and the shotmaking was very bad. But shooting 34 percent through the game's first 42 minutes isn't going to get it done.
3. George Hill's toe
Hill sat out Thursday's game to rest his sprained left big toe. After the game Saturday, he was icing it in a bucket of ice water, and I had my first good look at what it looked like.
There's no still photography allowed in the locker room, so I can't show you guys, but I can report that it looked bad. Really, there's a gumball-sized bump on the side of Hill's foot at the base of his left big toe. When I saw it, I immediately understood the severity of the injury. Remember, Hill sprained it Nov. 29, over two months ago now, and it still looks like that.
Hill grimaced putting on socks, and quite frankly, I'm surprised that he's able to fit his foot in shoes with how his foot is shaped. It says a lot about Hill's skill level as a player that he's contributing at this level with his movement limited to that extent.
And that also means it's time to stop with comments like this, from last game's Triple Team.
Another player might have shut it down, or sat out for longer, especially in a contract year. He wanted to play Thursday, but the team wanted to sit him due to his injury. Hill's out there because he knows how valuable he is to the team, even limited like he is.
Hill's favorite saying is "mind over matter," and that attitude is showing with his performances on the court.