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BOSTON — One possession came to Quin Snyder's mind.
It was early in the third quarter — well after the Boston Celtics had put the clamps on the Jazz in a 125-97 rout — and things worked how they should have.
There was a quick pass ahead, Donovan Mitchell made a quick read to Rudy Gobert, the team worked off the ball, and they scored.
It was great; it was good. But it happened — to Snyder's estimate — in about 20% of the game. Heck, maybe 50%, if he wanted to be generous.
"We weren't committed tonight to playing the way that we need to play," Snyder said.
That's putting it lightly. The Jazz were embarrassed, punked, exposed. Pick whatever adjective you'd like and it would equal the same thing: a blowout loss in a game that was never even close to competitive.
Utah has nine games left in the regular season after getting shellacked by Boston at TD Garden; nine games to fix the inconsistencies that have plagued them all season; nine games to get right in order to enter the postseason with a slight hope of making some type of run.
The last two games, in some ways, were dress rehearsals for the playoffs, and the Jazz fell on their face. They had no answer for Kevin Durant in a loss to the Brooklyn Nets, and then showed no fight against the Celtics.
Playoff atmosphere, playoff-caliber teams and the Jazz couldn't hang.
"A game like tonight, it's a playoff game, a playoff vibe — switching defense, guys hitting tough shots. We as a group didn't rise to the occasion," Mitchell said. "It's upsetting that we didn't bring it tonight. As a group we gotta play better. We gotta play better in a game like that."
The Celtics made their first 10 shots of the game, six of which were 3s, and went nearly eight minutes without a miss. By that point, the lead had already ballooned to 16. With the way the Jazz collapsed against Boston's switching defense and how they showed little desire to defend, the officials could have ended the game right then and there; it was over.
"In a game where we have nine games left before the playoffs against a talented team, a top team, playing a defense that we played against in the playoffs, that's what's pissing me off right now," Mitchell said. "We have seen this before. ... We didn't match their energy, their level. We deserved to get beat at that point."
For nearly a year, the Jazz have lived with the memory of how their season ended last June. They rolled through the regular season, only to lose four straight en route to being eliminated. This season was about fixing what happened in that series. Utah wanted to be able to find a way to survive against a switching defense and be more versatile defensively. If Wednesday was any indication, the Jazz haven't done either.
Utah had just 13 assists against the aggressive switching defense and allowed Boston to shoot 59% from the field and 53% from deep.
"It's good for us to face an opponent that is elite defensively because I think it shows us how committed we have to be with the way that we play in order to have success," Snyder said. "We didn't do that."
Is nine games enough to fix that?
It's getting harder to believe, but Gobert stills does. He said all he has to do is look at the team that blasted Utah on Wednesday. The Celtics hovered around .500 for most of the first few months before emerging as a legitimate NBA title contender.
"They decided that they need each other," Gobert said. "And they do it on both ends and they are doing it together — and we've done it. We've done it."
The problem — as Snyder, Mitchell and Gobert all pointed out — is the Jazz have failed to do it when teams make it even a little difficult.
"It's all good and well when we are free flowing, moving the ball offense," Mitchell said. "Compare that to the Memphis series where we are able to move the ball; then you get the Clippers."
LA made it hard last year, providing a blueprint of sorts to how to slow down the Jazz. A blueprint the Jazz have yet to solve — at least not consistently.
"It's gonna come from us. It's gonna come from our heart. Do we really want to do that?" Gobert said. "In the NBA, it's hard to know what's really driving each individual, but I think we do want to win."
They have nine games to figure that out for sure.
