Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
NEW ORLEANS — One by one, the key faces of the Utah Jazz took their turn in front of a familiar backdrop. It was moments after the team had been mauled in a 34-point loss, so how were they feeling? Anger? Frustration? Disappointment?
Actually, none of the above.
It was almost as if the Jazz collectively shrugged off the game, trying to get as far away from the stink of it as they could.
"Sometimes in a season you have some of those games," Rudy Gobert said.
Shrug
"I'm not gonna overreact to it. I don't think any of us are," added Donovan Mitchell.
Shrug.
Just like winning nine out of 10 — which the Jazz had done entering Friday — doesn't make a team a favorite to win an NBA championship; losing in such an empathic way doesn't spell doom for the rest of the season.
"A lot of things went right for them and a lot of things didn't go right for us," Mitchell said. "I'm not gonna sit here and act like it doesn't hurt, but I'm also not gonna sit here and act like it's the end of the world."
In short, how much does a large blowout mean? Well, relatively nothing.
Here's a look at recent history:
- Last season, the eventual champion Milwaukee Bucks lost by 31 to the Denver Nuggets (and then laid an egg during the Eastern Conference semifinals, too — falling to the Brooklyn Nets by 31 during the series).
- In 2019-20, the Los Angeles Lakers dropped a game to rival Boston by 32 points before going on to win the title in the Disney Bubble.
- In 2018-19, the Toronto Raptors dropped a game by 29 to the Orlando Magic and then went onto win their first title.
- In 2017-18, the dynasty Golden State Warriors lost by 40 to the Jazz. Utah's season ended in the second round; Golden State hoisted another O'Brien trophy.
The lesson? Blowouts happen. The worst team in the league suffers them and so do eventual title winners. Every team has bad days at work; the Jazz had one on Friday.
"We'll recharge and get ready for this back-to-back coming up," Mitchell said.
Gobert echoed Mitchell's thoughts but added, "None of us enjoy losing, especially in that way."
While also admitting that bad nights happen over the course of a season, Jazz coach Quin Snyder wouldn't go as far as to say the team should just toss the tape aside and move on. Yeah, it was bad, but as Snyder said, "that doesn't necessarily mean we can't look at the game and understand some things about it that we need to do better and maybe a little different."
Snyder ran through the now-familiar issues: poor transition defense, a struggle at the point of attack, and not being patient enough on the offensive end. The same issues that can be cited in other bad losses to the Magic, Indiana Pacers, Detroit Pistons, Lakers and Houston Rockets.
The Jazz are a flawed team — some of those issues might not always be solvable — but they've been able to recover after each of those losses. They plan to do so again starting Sunday in Oklahoma City.
One loss — just like one win —doesn't define a season.
Nights like Friday's happen; the Jazz are hoping to have more of the other kind.
