The Triple Team: Jazz winning streak ends after sloppy performance against Blazers


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SALT LAKE CITY — Three thoughts on the Jazz's 100-81 loss to the Portland Trail Blazers from KSL.com's Utah Jazz beat writer Andy Larsen.

1. The All-Star break slows the Jazz's roll

Coming into Friday's game, the postgame narratives had already been set. Seriously, the lede of each postgame recap for the Jazz and Trail Blazers was going to be about how each team returned from the All-Star break. If the Jazz won, the articles would be about how the Jazz kept the momentum going. If they lost, they would say that the nine-day break stopped the Jazz's rhythm. The above is true pretty much no matter how the game played out. Sportswriting is nothing if not predictable.

So throughout the game, I was desperate to find the actual truth of what was going on, to avoid the cliche. It's not clear momentum is even a measurable thing in sports, let alone the major factor in any win or loss, so I'd be easily able to find something, right?

Well, I hate to say it: the Jazz played poorly tonight, and they played poorly in such a way that exactly fits the cliche. They made simple, weird mistakes throughout, the kind of mistakes that would normally leave you searching for answers. Except that nine-day break explains everything.

Like this pass. Why is Joe Ingles throwing this so early? Why is he throwing such a soft bouncer with other players there?

It doesn't make any sense unless you think "Oh, right, Joe was on vacation two days ago, and his own personal timing is off, as well as his connectedness with his teammates."

Or this play:

Ricky Rubio just throws Donovan Mitchell despite the fact that he's being double-covered by two big men. Rubio has to be aware here that those men are guarding Rudy Gobert and Derrick Favors, and so are very willing to help in order to stop easy baskets at the rim. But he's not aware of that because it's his first basketball in over two weeks. Again, the break makes it all make sense.

Okay, one more, just so it's clear that the whole team had this problem: here, Mitchell just throws the ball beyond Gobert's outstretched arm. Mitchell expects Gobert to keep moving, Gobert expects to do the give and go a little inside of the line.

"I'll have to go back and look at it, but it just seemed there were a lot of plays where there were just little things that weren't quite precise enough that led to mistakes," Jazz head coach Quin Snyder said postgame.

The Jazz's turnover problem did slow down a little bit throughout the game; their three fourth-quarter turnovers aren't a bad outcome. But at that point, the Jazz just couldn't make any shots: the Jazz finished just 22 of 66 from the floor and two for 18 from the 3-point line. That makes it very difficult to win games.

2. Portland played some inspired defense

That being said, I also think the Blazers were exceptionally well prepared for this game, using a game plan that never let the Jazz's weapons get going at all.

The Blazers used a strategy against the Jazz that's been most effective all season: give their players the midrange by dropping off in the pick and roll, and staying connected to the Jazz's kickout options on the perimeter. In Portland, the Jazz beat it by making seven more threes than on Friday (on nearly the same number of attempts), getting eight more offensive rebounds, and, of course, turning the ball over seven fewer times.

I thought many of the turnovers were caused by Portland's back pressure, which was limited in the Jazz's two wins against the Blazers but on point tonight. When teams give the Jazz the midrange in the paint, they like to take their time in that pocket, either with dribble hesitation moves, pass fakes, or just keeping the dribble alive by using their rear end.

But the Blazers did a great job of applying pressure after trailing a screen. Sometimes, they got the steal right away:

Other times, that pressure prevented the dumpoff pass to another player (in this case, Gobert), leading Ingles to panic and throw the ball away.

"I thought out guys were really locked in and I was really very pleased with the way we sustained our focus, our defensive focus, throughout the game," Portland head coach Terry Stotts said.

3. Bad night in the playoff race

So given the break and the great play of the Portland Trail Blazers, it was an understandable loss for the Utah Jazz. But the Jazz's loss wasn't the only piece of bad news for the team tonight:

  • The New Orleans Pelicans beat the Miami Heat in overtime, 124-123. The Pellies got 45 points from Anthony Davis, 29 points from Jrue Holiday, and 21 points from former Jazzman Ian Clark. The rest of the team combined for 29 points.
  • The Denver Nuggets beat the San Antonio Spurs in Denver by 122-119, despite 38 points from LaMarcus Aldridge.
  • The LA Clippers beat the Phoenix Suns. Okay, that one shouldn't be a surprise.
Along with Portland's win, that's the four teams in the sixth, seventh, eighth, and ninth seeds who all won on Friday, so the Jazz are now 2.5 games out of a playoff spot. FiveThirtyEight has the Jazz with a 68 percent chance of making the playoffs now.

The playoff race did change in one way, though: Minnesota Timberwolves star Jimmy Butler suffered a non-contact knee injury in their loss to the Houston Rockets. While no diagnosis has been made yet, it doesn't look good. At the very least, Butler should be out for some time.

That's terrible news for the Wolves, who stand just two games ahead of the eight seed. We'll see what happens, but with the injuries to DeMarcus Cousins, Kawhi Leonard, Andre Roberson, and others, this playoff race may just be decided by who can stay healthiest in March and April.

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