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OKLAHOMA CITY — With four minutes left in the first half on Friday, the Utah Jazz already had committed 16 turnovers.
The good news: They got a little better (though, not much) from there on out.
It just didn't matter much at that point.
You might see a "point guard wanted" listing soon enough from the Utah Jazz after a 130-103 blowout loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder.
With Collin Sexton and Jordan Clarkson out, Utah was in dire need of another ball handler — or even a ball handler in general. Utah's de facto starting point guard, Talen Horton-Tucker, had six turnovers in just 21 minutes of play, but he was far from the only one who struggled against the Thunder.
Lauri Markkanen had six turnovers, as well, as part of a frustrating night, and Kelly Olynyk added four more. As a team, the Jazz finished with 26 giveaways.
"Twenty-six turnovers — you can almost end the commentary of the game there," Jazz coach Will Hardy said. "Like, it's really hard to win an NBA game with 26 turnovers."
The lack of a true creator (though Kris Dunn had some good moments leading the second unit; he finished with 11 points, six assists and six rebounds) and lack of overall shooting made it a sloppy game.
The Thunder scored 32 points off Utah's giveaway. Oklahoma City, meanwhile, committed just seven turnovers and the Jazz scored 6 points off those; that just about equals the final margin.
So why did the Jazz struggle?
The injuries didn't help, obviously. Neither did the Jazz having to rely on some fringe NBA players. And neither did Oklahoma City's collapsing defense.
When the Jazz got into the paint, the Thunder brought multiple defenders to the ball forcing some tough decisions, and the Jazz didn't often read the game well enough. Utah was called for five charges and committed 13 live-ball turnovers.
"I don't think the intent of the team is bad; I don't think anyone is trying to do things on their own," Hardy said. "There's some sloppy play, some bad spacing, some guys aren't on the same page, for whatever reason. We are playing some different lineups these last couple of games, with some guys injured and some new faces. That's obviously part of it."
Though, unlike Utah's loss to San Antonio on Tuesday, Friday night's didn't feel, for a lack of a better word, tanky. There was no doubt that the Jazz tried to win the game — it just was a bad performance. It didn't help either that the Thunder hit 13 3-pointers in the first half. Hardy said his team overreacted to that defensively, and then Oklahoma City was able to break the paint in the second half.
Oklahoma City was up by 15 points at halftime, and the Jazz never were able to cut the lead to single digits. The Jazz fell to 31-33 on the season and, as of now, are 10th in the West.
Markkanen finished with 20 points on 6-for-14 shooting, but it was a struggle for every point. Oklahoma City's Lu Dort fought over just about every screen the Jazz set to try and free up their All-Star forward and rarely gave Markkanen a clean look at the hoop. The bloody gash on Markkanen's left bicep was symbolic of the hard night he had — as was a sore back from a collision in the third quarter.
Markkanen said he wasn't feeling it too bad after the game, but threw in the asterisk that he might wake up a bit more sore. And he doesn't think there's anything super special the Jazz need to do to cure some of the things that hampered them on Friday.
"Get to our spots that we were supposed to, and everyone being on the same page on what we are running," Markkanen said.
As for Hardy, it's about the team playing to its strengths. No, the Jazz can't replicate Clarkson's isolation game or Sexton's speed, but he thinks they have the players that can still run an effective offense … and definitely players that can play in a way where there's not 26 turnovers. So, in the end, he's happy the Jazz get another crack at this same Thunder team in a couple days.
"I'm glad we get to play again on Sunday," Hardy said.
