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SALT LAKE CITY — Alec Burks came around a screen and pulled up for an open free-throw line jumper. The shot found nothing but air. His expressionless face lingered a little at the spot of the ball as his arms fell down to his sides — he couldn’t believe he had missed that shot that badly.
It was that type of night for the Jazz in a 121-88 loss to Indiana at Vivint Arena Monday. The problem, though, is there have been lots of those nights; nights when the Jazz struggle to protect the ball, when they struggle to shoot, when they struggle to defend, when they struggle to — well, you get the point.
The Jazz dropped to 9-12 on the season and a nearly unbelievable 2-6 at home.
How many times can you tell the same story? The Jazz might just find out this season.
Utah came out lifeless and suffered through another slow start. The Jazz had five turnovers in the first 5 minutes of the game and fell behind 33-25 after the first quarter. From there, the Pacers just extended their lead. And that was especially true in the second half.
Indiana outscored Utah 31-23 in the third quarter to go up 19 entering the final period. And the Jazz offered little resistance in the last 12 minutes as the Pacers secured their second blowout of Utah in a week.
"We did some to ourselves," Jazz coach Quin Snyder said. "We need to make sure we are taking care of the ball. We had some opportunists when it was double digits — 10, 12, whatever it was — we didn’t make the plays we needed to make."
The Jazz couldn't come up with consecutive stops enough. And with the way the Jazz were shooting, that meant a comeback wasn't going to be in the cards.
"I can't remember the last time we had three consecutive stops," Jae Crowder said.
It certainly didn't feel like they did that on Monday. The Pacers had seven players score in double figures, led by Doug McDermott’s 21 points. Indiana shot 58.3 percent from the field as it carved up Utah’s defense. Myles Turner had 16 points on the night as he exposed the Jazz’s inability to close out on pick-and-pop plays. He hit three straight of those shots in the second quarter to help Indiana build a double-digit lead into the break.
And it only got worse from there.
"When we have lost this year, we have lost," said Joe Ingles who finished with 10 points. "We haven’t been in the game; it’s been pretty large margins."
The Pacers shot just 18 three-point shots on the evening (and made nine of them) but didn’t need too much help from the long ball. Indiana beat Utah with midrange shots and layups — and plenty of those went uncontested.
The Jazz once again went through long periods where they struggled to make shots. Ricky Rubio was 2-for-8, Burks was 2-for-7, Crowder was 2-for-9 and Dante Exum was 3-for-10 on the night. The Jazz missed shots from deep (8-for-30 from 3-point range) and pretty much everywhere else.
The performance made the handwringing some fans had on whether Derrick Favors or Crowder should start games seem downright inconsequential. Because in the end, it didn’t matter.
Twenty-one games into the season, the fix isn’t as easy as figuring out who should start.
So what is that fix?
"If we worked it out, we wouldn’t be sitting here talking about it," Ingles said.
Next up
The Jazz travel to Brooklyn for a matchup against the Nets on Wednesday.
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Ryan Miller
