SALT LAKE CITY — Three thoughts on the Jazz's 104-97 loss to the Philadelphia 76ers from KSL.com's Utah Jazz beat writer, Andy Larsen.

1. Jazz's horrific shooting night gives them no chance

Yikes, the Jazz had just an ugly, ugly night shooting the ball. Here are some shooting numbers:

• Donovan Mitchell was 3-21 FG, including 2-11 from the 3-point line
• Ricky Rubio was 4-16 FG, 0-5 from 3
• Rodney Hood was 4-14 FG, and 2-7 from 3
• Joe Ingles was 6-16 FG, and 3-10 from behind the arc
• Derrick Favors was 2-7 FG, and 1-2 (hey, pretty good!) from 3
• Raul Neto was 1-5 FG, 0-1 from the 3-point line
• And Alec Burks was 0-3 overall, with no 3-point attempts

In order to shoot that badly, you need to take some bad shots and miss some open shots. Yes, the Jazz did both. Joe Ingles, of all people, took a fadeaway, stepback, midrange jumper with 14 seconds on the shot clock. Thabo Sefolosha did this too. These are not good shots, ever.

But there's also the reverse: not taking good shots. Rodney Hood passed up two layups today for some reason.

Rodney Hood probably should have taken this layup and not casually dribbled the ball out for a three pic.twitter.com/3fg0m0ib5q — Andy Larsen (@andyblarsen) November 8, 2017

Let's give the Sixers some credit. They were good defensively tonight, and they cut the Jazz off at the point of attack frequently. Part of it is that the Jazz's roster just isn't very offensively talented. But I thought they were better than this.

2. Defensive effort was really, weirdly bad

Usually, the Jazz are excellent at communicating defensively, probably the best non-Warriors team in the league. Tonight, they were awful at that, and Utah gave the Sixers numerous open buckets by just not figuring out who was guarding whom at any given time.

Sometimes, that was caused by the simplest actions. Hey, guys, it's a screen! Call it out and switch! Rudy Gobert has to wake up here, because T.J. McConnell isn't a threat without a screen and is hardly a threat with one.

This seems like a pretty easy basket, right? Like someone should have switched on this screen? (cough Rudy) pic.twitter.com/6ACzq13XuA — Andy Larsen (@andyblarsen) November 8, 2017

Oh, but it gets worse. Hey, Raul Neto, why are you playing so far away from Justin Anderson without knowing where he is here?

But at least there was a screen on that one. Why is Neto hedging over so much and losing track of his man? pic.twitter.com/RBWto8t4OW — Andy Larsen (@andyblarsen) November 8, 2017

Hey, Jonas Jerebko, Dario Saric had hit three 3-pointers at this point, maybe don't play 15 feet away from him and casually step out as he shoots the open three!

But at least there was off-ball movement on that one. How about just standing 15 feet away from Saric on a OOB so he can shoot a wide open 3? pic.twitter.com/JrKwrfwNYZ — Andy Larsen (@andyblarsen) November 8, 2017

Or maybe don't leave J.J. Redick, one of the league's best shooters, wide-open after a made basket.

But at least Saric is a 32 percent career 3-point shooter. How about just leaving J.J. FREAKING REDICK wide open from the wing 0 seconds after a made basket pic.twitter.com/ewyKwie9Sm — Andy Larsen (@andyblarsen) November 8, 2017

This is, like, middle school stuff. Maybe. I'm being generous.

The Jazz did end up with a 98 defensive rating through forcing a ton of turnovers, because the Sixers were without their best player, and because the Jazz are legitimately good at getting steals. But if they had paid any consistent attention to the very basics of defense on the other possessions, they would have won the game despite being mind-numbingly awful on offense.

3. Adjustment to the starting unit in the second half

The Jazz started tonight's game rather awfully, allowing the Sixers to get out to a 23-10 start thanks to Rubio's bad shooting, grinding gears offense and, again, just repeatedly weird defense. But they fought back to have just a two-point deficit at halftime. It looked okay from there.

So Quin Snyder changed it up at halftime, and he put Donovan Mitchell in to start the second half instead of Rodney Hood. But the Jazz were equally bad: they gave up a 21-7 run in the first six minutes of the second half.

That starting lineup has been really bad all season long: They're being outscored by 11.2 points per 100 possessions. But the same lineup with Mitchell instead of Hood has been outscored by 22 points per 100 possessions. In other words, it doesn't seem like the answer, either.

So what is the answer? I don't think it makes much sense to bench Joe Ingles — his best skills are shooting open threes and defending wings one-on-one. The former is best when he has spacing added by Gobert rolls; the latter is most useful against the opposition's good scorers.

Maybe move Derrick Favors to the bench, in favor of a lineup with more spacing? But then they'd really risk losing Favors mentally, as he already spent twenty minutes just staring at the ceiling when reporters were in the locker room after the game. Maybe he was staring at the ceiling for every minute he played Tuesday (19:54); he'd certainly like to play more in a game where the Jazz were very bad offensively.

And I don't know that benching Ricky Rubio is the answer either. First, Mitchell is probably not ready to take over: Of course, there's the 3-21 performance tonight, but, in the end, he's struggled most so far when managing the floor as a point guard when he's been asked to do so. And second, Rubio has shown enough flashes that it's probably wise to have some confidence in the player that the Jazz traded for to be the starting point guard for two seasons.

In other words, I don't think there's an immediate answer. It may have to be a roster change, or it may just be a matter of figuring out how to make the starting unit play better together. But it's been ugly so far.

Related topics