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SALT LAKE CITY — Friday night the Jazz fought tooth and nail against the Los Angeles Clippers, but fell short and are now going to be searching for meaning and a reason to try in the final month of the season.
The Friday loss wasn't a sudden revelation that the Jazz wouldn't make the playoffs, only further confirmation that the Jazz have missing pieces and are far from being competitive night in and night out.
The Jazz remain theoretically alive for the playoffs, but another Jazz loss or a Memphis win mathematically eliminates them. Now the Jazz have to do something that Jazz players haven't had to do since the turbulent 2010 season — find a reason to compete with no prize as an incentive.
Over the past two years the Jazz either made the playoffs or missed on the last night of the season.
The Jazz will start with a road trip against three playoff teams the Jazz tend to struggle against. So, what do they want to get out of this road tip against the San Antonio Spurs, the Houston Rockets and the Memphis Grizzlies? The only prize is a win.
The Jazz were without Marvin Williams Friday night and remain winless when he or Derrick Favors are not in the lineup. But it wasn't for lack of trying. Enes Kanter stepped up and had a double-double outing with 11 points and 15 rebounds while playing 42 minutes against two great bigs for the Clippers.
“He played hard, I thought defensively he was getting better,” Jazz coach Tyrone Corbin said about Kanter. “He made some mistakes in the second half, but I thought he did a great job in the first half with Derrick in foul trouble and (I) was able to play him a little longer.”
The Jazz expect Kanter and Favors to be the front court of the future, but they haven't been able to stay on the court together consistently this season. They have played 40 games together and have been on the court at the same time for 527 minutes. The biggest problem is that when they do play together, the Jazz score 15 points less than the other team.
Over the past five games the Jazz is actually outscoring teams when the two are on court together. The margin isn't much, but compared to the minus 15, the trend is significant. Corbin said one factor in the shift is that players are better able to space themselves around the two to open up the court. Corbin will have to decide how much he will play Favors and Kanter together as the season winds to an end.
“We'll look into it, we'll see how Marvin is,” Corbin said. “We'll see how much we can get back to it. We want to give guys opportunities, but we want to play a certain way. We want to make sure guys are earning everything they get. We'll see what gives us the best chance and not just have guys on the floor.”
The Jazz need to continue monitoring how the team performs when Trey Burke, Alec Burks and Gordon Hayward join Favors and Kanter on the court. While t's a lineup fans are eager to watch, thus far, the group has been good during wins, and bad during losses. The difference has been huge.
In the wins, the Jazz are outscoring opponents by 17.5 points. In the losses they are being outscored by 13.5 points when the core group is on the floor together. The group has spent only 57 minutes total on the floor together this season, but 25 of those minutes have come during March. They will need to play more together to get a better feel for the future.
There are 16 games remaining for the Jazz in a season that is about the future. Will playing Kanter and Favors together produce similar results — a combined 29 points and 24 rebounds — to the Clippers game, or are they going to get in each other's way?
Can the core players find their roles over the rest of the season? All five have shown improvement during the season. Kanter and Burks have improved almost every game.
The Jazz need to find a silver lining for this rough season. An early lottery draft pick will be nice for the fans, but the players need to find a reason to enjoy the remaining games for themselves.
