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SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Jazz dropped its fourth straight game at home and fourth game overall Monday night against a runaway train, also known as the Toronto Raptors.
The Raptors steamrolled the Jazz in the second half of what had been a close game and walked out of Vivint Arena with a 124-111 victory. The Jazz were without second-year star Donovan Mitchell, and the lack of offensive creation in his absence was apparent. But, it is hardly an excuse against a team playing on the second night of back-to-back games and without their star Kawhi Leonard.
The Jazz limped out of halftime and saw an 11-point deficit balloon to as much as 26 before mitigating the damage in garbage time.
It’s not the first time the Jazz have disappeared for entire quarters during the four-game skid. Against Denver on Saturday night, the Jazz were outscored 35-15 in the fourth quarter, including giving up a 21-4 run to start the final period. Against Memphis on Friday, the Jazz surrendered a 30-point third quarter, adding just 18 points of their own.
It’s a concerning sign for a team that opted for consistency during the summer, rather than adding talent, with the assumption that they’d pick up where they left off after winning 48 games last season. Ricky Rubio, who had a stellar second half of the season for the Jazz last season has reverted to his earlier career flaws, turning the ball over at a high rate and shooting poorly from the floor.
Derrick Favors who signed a two-year $36 million deal over the summer has also seen a drop in production, including his shooting percentages where he was stellar around the rim last season. Favors also appears to lack the explosiveness he showed last season, leading to the belief that he may once again be dealing with injuries that have plagued him for much of his past few seasons.
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Joe Ingles turned around to see a horde of reporters hovering near him.Shooting woes have also plagued backup guard Dante Exum, who appeared poised for a breakout year after signing a three-year $33 million contract. Exum’s numbers have dipped from 48 percent from the floor last season to 39 percent this season, and 27 percent from the three down to 25 percent. Between Exum and Rubio’s sub 40 percent shooting, the Jazz simply aren’t a threat to score the ball in the backcourt next to Mitchell.
As a team, the Jazz are shooting 34.8 percent from the three-point line — the 19th worst in the NBA. For a team that relies on ball movement and spacing to facilitate their offense, their inability to knock down shots has dropped them to the 15th best offensive team in the league, decidedly mediocre.
More concerning, however, the Jazz are the 16th ranked defensive team, after finishing last season as the league’s second-best defense. The Jazz are allowing opposing teams to shoot 48 percent from the floor, with only three teams allowing a higher percentage. Opponents are shooting 36 percent from the three against the Jazz, which is the 21st highest in the NBA.
It’s still early in the season, just 10 games in, and the Jazz have played one of the league’s tougher schedules and are a Jonas-Jerebko-buzzer-beating basket away from having a .500 record. But in the loaded Western Conference, every loss matters. While the Jazz were 10 games under .500 in January last year before storming back to earn the 5th seed in the playoffs and a first-round victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder, the odds of going on a similar tear this season is farfetched. The conference got deeper over the offseason through the draft and, with the addition of LeBron James to the Los Angeles Lakers, the late-season wins may be tougher to come by than last year.
At 4-6, it’s not yet time for Jazz fans to hit the panic button. There are 72 games left in the season, the team will get healthier and the schedule will ease. But after this current three-game homestand, the Jazz will play 15 of 21 games on the road and will have to fight to stay competitive — or risk getting left behind in the brutal Western Conference.
