Warriors 7, Jazz 0
There's still two games left in the regular season, followed by at least four games in a first-round playoff series, but Saturday's loss felt like a season-ender for the Jazz. Yes, there's a chance to regroup, but the Jazz seem unlikely to do so in time for a tunaround.
They lost to a Warriors team with only seven healthy players and missing its four leading scorers. Those seven included four who went undrafted, three who are rookies, four who played in the Rocky Mountain Revue last summer and two with D-League backgrounds.
I think you could take the feelings after the Oklahoma City loss, the Miami loss, the Portland losses, the Denver losses, the Minnesota loss and the Dallas loss and it still wouldn't add up to the despair after losing to the Warriors in those circumstances.
Not only that, Warriors coach Don Nelson pretty much gave up on the game before it started, letting assistant Keith Smart coach the team, although you could see Nelson giving instruction during timeouts, though he barely got up during the game.
It was one of the few games for which pregame introductions were necessary. I learned, for instance, that Kelenna Azubuike went to Kentucky, C.J. Watson to Tennessee, Rob Kurz to Notre Dame and Anthony Morrow to Georgia Tech.
"These young guys that we've had since the summer from Las Vegas to the summer league here in Utah, they have just worked their butts off all year long," Smart said, "until unfortunately for us we had a bunch of injuries.
"These guys all got a chance to play. The program that we have here getting these young guys better so when their opportunity comes, they are ready to play. It's a testament to all these young guys how they've performed."
Yet the Jazz were worked over by those Warriors, trailing by 15 in the second quarter, 17 in the third and 18 in the fourth. They have lost six of their last seven games and are going through a complete defensive collapse.
During those last seven games, the Jazz have given up 125, 114, 103, 94, 130, 105 and 118 points, for an average of 112.7 points. Opposing teams have gone 280-for-522 (53.6 percent), including the Warriors at 54.8 percent Saturday.
The Warriors ran a bunch of pick-and-rolls and a bunch of dribble handoffs, with the Jazz unable to stop much of anything.
It's highly unlikely the Jazz will be able to climb out of the No. 8 seed and avoid a first-round series against the top-seeded Lakers. I figure New Orleans will have to lose its last three games - - home against Dallas, at Houston and San Antonio - - for it to happen.
Even then, the Jazz still would have to beat the Lakers, and I find it unlikely that the Lakers wouldn't look over the state the Jazz are in and decide their path of least resistance through the playoffs includes a stop in Salt Lake City.
I asked Jazz coach Jerry Sloan after the game if he thought his players were wearing down after spending so much time earlier in the season fighting to stay together in the face of injuries.
"I would hope they aren't," Sloan said. "How many of them are 35? I don't know. Any of them 35?"
Told that Brevin Knight was 33, Sloan said: "Well, if he was playing 40 minutes, I'd be worried. I don't have anybody playing that many minutes, tough minutes. Deron probably plays just a few more, but he's young.
"I see other teams do that. Watson, he played 39 minutes. It's one of those things. I don't think minutes should be a problem.
"We got to the airport last night same time they did. It wasn't like they were here four or five hours later than us. We got here about the same time. I thought on a back-to-back coming home, we'd have a little bit more energy. But I really didn't see that."
The Jazz dropped to 3-17 in the second game of back-to-back sets, especially notable in that they are 0-4 coming home for the back end. There's also no chance any more for the Jazz to notch a 50-win season, which seemed inevitable back in October.
After watching Saturday's loss, it also wouldn't surprise me now if the L.A. Clippers come to town Monday and improve to 2-33 all-time at EnergySolutions Arena.
* * *
We don't give enough credit to the opposing team - - after all, the focus is the Jazz - - but Golden State played an almost-perfect game. They built that big lead, did everything to stay out of foul trouble and held on in the final five minutes even after running out of gas.
"We did awesome," Rob Kurz said. "We just played loose. We realized that we are out of the playoffs and had nothing to lose. We just played fearlessly and played together. We made some shots and had a lot of good effort from a lot of different guys.
"There's something about sports, when your back is against the wall, you tend to play better and guys come together. We've had a lot of adversity with a lot of injuries, but we have done a good job of coming together and fighting. We shared the ball, we had each other's backs, we played with a lot of passion, and that is contagious."
* * *
Credit Carlos Boozer for keeping the Jazz in Saturday's game with one of his best performances since knee surgery. Boozer had 25 points and 12 rebounds on 10-for-18 shooting in 32 minutes.
* * *
For whatever reason, the chemistry is all wrong with the Jazz. They've gone just 14-10 in 24 games of having the full team together. Sloan summed up the problems pretty simply after the Dallas loss, a quote that I forget to get into the paper.
"That's where I thought we'd come with a lot more energy," Sloan said, "because we've got everybody back and we haven't shown that kind of desire to play that you might expect."
* * *
I'm going to say that I'm a complete idiot for what I wrote here yesterday about the Jazz having no chance of losing to the Warriors, except that I still believe it today. I just can't believe it happened. I can't believe these are the depths that we've reached.
--Ross Siler
They lost to a Warriors team with only seven healthy players and missing its four leading scorers. Those seven included four who went undrafted, three who are rookies, four who played in the Rocky Mountain Revue last summer and two with D-League backgrounds.
I think you could take the feelings after the Oklahoma City loss, the Miami loss, the Portland losses, the Denver losses, the Minnesota loss and the Dallas loss and it still wouldn't add up to the despair after losing to the Warriors in those circumstances.
Not only that, Warriors coach Don Nelson pretty much gave up on the game before it started, letting assistant Keith Smart coach the team, although you could see Nelson giving instruction during timeouts, though he barely got up during the game.
It was one of the few games for which pregame introductions were necessary. I learned, for instance, that Kelenna Azubuike went to Kentucky, C.J. Watson to Tennessee, Rob Kurz to Notre Dame and Anthony Morrow to Georgia Tech.
"These young guys that we've had since the summer from Las Vegas to the summer league here in Utah, they have just worked their butts off all year long," Smart said, "until unfortunately for us we had a bunch of injuries.
"These guys all got a chance to play. The program that we have here getting these young guys better so when their opportunity comes, they are ready to play. It's a testament to all these young guys how they've performed."
Yet the Jazz were worked over by those Warriors, trailing by 15 in the second quarter, 17 in the third and 18 in the fourth. They have lost six of their last seven games and are going through a complete defensive collapse.
During those last seven games, the Jazz have given up 125, 114, 103, 94, 130, 105 and 118 points, for an average of 112.7 points. Opposing teams have gone 280-for-522 (53.6 percent), including the Warriors at 54.8 percent Saturday.
The Warriors ran a bunch of pick-and-rolls and a bunch of dribble handoffs, with the Jazz unable to stop much of anything.
It's highly unlikely the Jazz will be able to climb out of the No. 8 seed and avoid a first-round series against the top-seeded Lakers. I figure New Orleans will have to lose its last three games - - home against Dallas, at Houston and San Antonio - - for it to happen.
Even then, the Jazz still would have to beat the Lakers, and I find it unlikely that the Lakers wouldn't look over the state the Jazz are in and decide their path of least resistance through the playoffs includes a stop in Salt Lake City.
I asked Jazz coach Jerry Sloan after the game if he thought his players were wearing down after spending so much time earlier in the season fighting to stay together in the face of injuries.
"I would hope they aren't," Sloan said. "How many of them are 35? I don't know. Any of them 35?"
Told that Brevin Knight was 33, Sloan said: "Well, if he was playing 40 minutes, I'd be worried. I don't have anybody playing that many minutes, tough minutes. Deron probably plays just a few more, but he's young.
"I see other teams do that. Watson, he played 39 minutes. It's one of those things. I don't think minutes should be a problem.
"We got to the airport last night same time they did. It wasn't like they were here four or five hours later than us. We got here about the same time. I thought on a back-to-back coming home, we'd have a little bit more energy. But I really didn't see that."
The Jazz dropped to 3-17 in the second game of back-to-back sets, especially notable in that they are 0-4 coming home for the back end. There's also no chance any more for the Jazz to notch a 50-win season, which seemed inevitable back in October.
After watching Saturday's loss, it also wouldn't surprise me now if the L.A. Clippers come to town Monday and improve to 2-33 all-time at EnergySolutions Arena.
* * *
We don't give enough credit to the opposing team - - after all, the focus is the Jazz - - but Golden State played an almost-perfect game. They built that big lead, did everything to stay out of foul trouble and held on in the final five minutes even after running out of gas.
"We did awesome," Rob Kurz said. "We just played loose. We realized that we are out of the playoffs and had nothing to lose. We just played fearlessly and played together. We made some shots and had a lot of good effort from a lot of different guys.
"There's something about sports, when your back is against the wall, you tend to play better and guys come together. We've had a lot of adversity with a lot of injuries, but we have done a good job of coming together and fighting. We shared the ball, we had each other's backs, we played with a lot of passion, and that is contagious."
* * *
Credit Carlos Boozer for keeping the Jazz in Saturday's game with one of his best performances since knee surgery. Boozer had 25 points and 12 rebounds on 10-for-18 shooting in 32 minutes.
* * *
For whatever reason, the chemistry is all wrong with the Jazz. They've gone just 14-10 in 24 games of having the full team together. Sloan summed up the problems pretty simply after the Dallas loss, a quote that I forget to get into the paper.
"That's where I thought we'd come with a lot more energy," Sloan said, "because we've got everybody back and we haven't shown that kind of desire to play that you might expect."
* * *
I'm going to say that I'm a complete idiot for what I wrote here yesterday about the Jazz having no chance of losing to the Warriors, except that I still believe it today. I just can't believe it happened. I can't believe these are the depths that we've reached.
--Ross Siler
1:11 AM
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2 Comments:
Siler, I love your work but that's twice you've jinxed the Jazz with a "no chance they will lose" prediction. The first was for the recent Minnesota debacle.
Watching DAL and NOH scrap it out today, I couldn't help but shake my head even further at the unbelievably weak "performance" of the Utah Jazz.
I know Sloan turned the last third of this year into rehab for a downright awful starting job by one Carlos Loser, but still, I just don't get their level of apathy. Compared to the other teams who could've finished eighth, the Jazz are just absolutely b*tch-made.
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