Jazz fall by 50: Coach, players try to make sense of historic loss


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DALLAS — Utah Jazz coach Quin Snyder admitted to what anyone who watched Dallas’ 118-68 drubbing of Utah already knew.

“There was a point where we stopped competing,” he said. “We all have to own that.”

It went from bad to worse and then worse again. And soon, the Jazz were playing a historically bad game. The 50-point margin was the franchise’s largest defeat since moving to Utah (the New Orleans Jazz lost by 56 in 1979).

Here are just some of the poor stats from Wednesday:

  • The Jazz scored 3 points off of 19 Dallas turnovers.
  • They had an offensive rating of 65.
  • They made just nine shots outside of the restricted area.
  • They went over 12 minutes between the third and fourth quarters without a field goal.
  • They scored just 9 points in the fourth.
  • Eight Jazz players had a plus/minus of -20 or worse.
“You go down the line, there’s probably nothing you can point to that we did well collectively,” Snyder said.

Or individually, for that matter.

So what happened? That’s the question just about everyone was asking.

“You can’t point to just missing shots,” Snyder said. “... It’s a myriad of things. Early on I didn't think we were as aggressive as we needed to be, our reads and decisions weren’t good. … When we did get spots, we didn't turn them into baskets. We didn’t take advantage of the opportunities we had and the results speak for themselves.”

The missed shots

In the first half, Utah was getting plenty of the looks that they wanted. Open corner threes, above the break threes, and high passes in the paint led to good opportunities to get points. But Utah was having an off night. The Jazz shot just 4-of-18 from the 3-point range in the opening half. And when those didn’t fall, Utah started breaking its offense a bit. That’s where the bad reads and decisions Snyder spoke of really came in.

Alec Burks and Dante Exum both started attacking one-on-one with little to no success and players started passing up wide open 3-point looks. That indecision often led to turnovers. And soon, the game was spiraling further and further out of control.

“We were a little unsure of what we wanted to do and that plays a part of it,” Donovan Mitchell said.

The defense

“It was too easy to score,” Snyder said.

“We didn’t play with a lot of pride defensively,” Mitchell said.

This isn’t the first time this season the Jazz’s vaunted defense has looked like a shell of last season's edition. Utah made life too easy for Dallas, often going under screens and allowing open 3-point attempts — that the Mavs buried with regularity (Dallas shot 43 percent from deep on 28 attempts). They didn't pressure the guards enough, forcing them into the paint where Rudy Gobert thrives. That points to a lack of focus and a lack of communication on screens.

“Obviously when the shots aren't falling, the defense has to rise even more and that just didn’t happen,” Mitchell said. “Lack of focus sometimes, think lack of communication and not making shots, all of that combined and you have a 50-point loss.”

The Mavs shot finished with a 66.2 effective field goal percentage and in the second half scored with relative ease as the lead ballooned.

“The fourth quarter, I think we didn’t compete like we needed to on the defensive end,” Snyder said.

Moving on

There’s a lot to fix on both ends. And the Jazz will be the first to admit that. Utah hasn't yet shown the consistency or chemistry of a team that brought many key players back from a playoff run. They’ve played well in spurts — moments against Boston, Golden State, even Monday in Memphis — where they showed just how good they could be on offense and defense. But they’ve also had moments where they looked like the team that showed up in Dallas on Wednesday.

“You have to own the game,” Snyder said. “What that means looking at the things and how they happened.”

And figuring out how it doesn’t happen again.

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