Jazz lose by 41 to the Golden State Warriors

Three thoughts on the Utah Jazz's 127-86 loss to the Golden State Warriors from Salt Lake Tribune Jazz beat writer Andy Larsen.

1. A completely lifeless crime

“It wasn’t pretty,” head coach Will Hardy said at the start of today’s press conference.

Yes, it wasn't. Scoring 86 points (with an offensive rating of 83) is as bad as offense can get in the modern NBA era. Hardy reported that his players felt like it was “just one of those nights” – missed free throws from Lauri Markkanen, missed 3-pointers from Taylor Hendricks, Jordan Clarkson, Cody Williams and Collin Sexton and even three missed dunks.

But Hardy wasn't prepared to accept that explanation, which is good – I don't think it fits well with the description of what happened tonight. The Jazz were completely overloaded, physically overwhelmed and outsmarted tonight, especially at the point of attack. As the Warriors brought their toughness to this game, the Jazz withered. You can accept the Jazz losing to a Warriors team due to a lower skill level. Because it's just too soft? It is more difficult to manage.

“Our team has to continue to find the mental part of it, push through the tough moments and not back down,” Hardy said.

On Wednesday, the Jazz managed to turn a 17-point fourth-quarter deficit into a lead before ultimately falling short due to missed free throws. However, completely letting go of the rope in this case was a worse sign.

Of course, mental strength is not enough: you also need to know how to react when physicality occurs. Take this play when Jordan Clarkson is caught up top: he needs to pass the ball quickly, and most importantly, his teammates need to help him start the 4-on-3 play that should lead to points behind the trap.

We all expect the Jazz to lose a lot this year – but losses like Wednesday's are acceptable and positive steps toward being a better team one day. Losses like on Friday? They are regressions. We still have 80 games left to determine whether the Jazz are a fun team lacking sufficient skill and experience or a bad team that will require roster-wide changes as they rebuild.

(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Golden State Warriors guard De'Anthony Melton (8) battles Utah Jazz forward John during an NBA basketball game Saturday, Oct. 25, 2024, in Salt Lake City Collins (20) for possession of the ball.

Things went reasonably well for the Jazz in the first round of the game – then the replacement players arrived. Six minutes later, the Jazz brought in Cody Williams and Brice Sensabaugh, and just over a minute later came John Collins and Jordan Clarkson.

This lineup gave up 10 points in just over two minutes. The next 2:53 minutes included another six-point run by the Warrior. Suddenly, a promising beginning turned incredibly quickly into a self-dug hole.

Yes, it's only two games. But even on paper, I have almost no reason to hope for anything positive from this second lineup. Walker Kessler's defensive gap to Collins just can't get any bigger, and he's sharing the field with three or four other defensive bottoms – Brice Sensabaugh, Jordan Clarkson and Keyonte George – out there.

While the hope with this lineup is to outscore teams, the problem is that all of these players also score first – so you don't benefit from the ball-moving synergy of the NBA's best offensive lineups. The result? Big losses.

(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Utah Jazz guard Collin Sexton (2) looks for an open teammate while playing against the Golden State Warriors during an NBA basketball game Saturday, Oct. 25, 2024, in Salt Lake City plays.

Given the Jazz's roster, I might try to mix things up a bit in the second group. Even though Collin Sexton isn't a very good defensive player, he at least brings more energy than anyone not currently on the bench. I also wonder what the impact of playing Kyle Filipowski and his ball movement would be; At least it would help “Flip” develop.

However, this cast only plays for a few minutes at a time. Then, thanks to the great replacement of Lauri Markkanen, there is a third unit that should be much better and plays in the quarter breaks. It was largely this lineup that brought the Jazz back in the second half against the Grizzlies on Wednesday, for example.

Look – in this tumultuous season, it's possible that the bad lineups are the deciding factor, and punting a few minutes per half right away could be the best way to lose games while still hurting the rest of the squad in the other 36 minutes still to obtain development property. But when it comes to aiming for wins, I don't think the current setup is ideal.

(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Utah Jazz coach Will Hardy during play against the Golden State Warriors during an NBA basketball game on Saturday, Oct. 25, 2024, in Salt Lake City.

“It just shows me how the game went,” George said.

Have ever done it. This missed dunk is definitely the first Shaqtin' highlight of the season.

We all know plays like this happen – they're frustrating, but at least it couldn't have happened in a less important situation.

But what worries me a little about George is his ability to bounce back from bad plays. We saw him compound his mistakes in the Jazz's first game against the Grizzlies by following bad shots with other bad shots and just forcing them instead of correcting them.

“I don’t think emotions are bad. I don't think frustration is bad. That's very real, especially with young athletes, but I think there are times when emotions are very high – they run the show, and that's not what we want,” Hardy said after George's first game. “We can't dwell so much on what's already happened, on the frustration or the anger, and my responsibility is to maybe point that out at different times and provide an outside perspective.”

George's reaction to the missed dunk was another point: Yes, the dunk was missed – but Kyle Filipowski was right behind him and still got the two points as long as George focused back on the game! Instead, he persisted with his mistake, hanging on the sidelines and receiving the goalkeeper's call.

He's being hard on himself right now, with the same perfectionism that hurt Walker Kessler last year. Hopefully he can turn things around before Kessler.

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