The Utah Jazz Are Finally Coming Back Down to Earth
The Utah Jazz have been the NBA’s biggest surprise of this young 2021 season. At about the midway mark, the Jazz finds themselves at the top spot of the western conference holding a 1-5 game lead over the Los Angeles Lakers and the best record in the NBA.
With all this success why am I writing an article about Jazz slipping instead of admiring their excellence so far this season?
Well, the Jazz are 5-5 in their last 10 games, but it’s really hard to see the reason why when you just look at the analytics. To put it briefly, before this 10 game slump, the Jazz were first in points scored, threes made and plus/minus. Second in rebounds, and seventh in blocks. They also have the fourth-highest offensive rating and third-highest defensive rating.
Usually, when you look at season-long team stats and compare them to a slump or a hot streak you can see what causes a team’s failures or successes. Yet during this 5-5 run for the Jazz the only change worth noting is a 4 point rise in their defensive rating (the lower the defensive rating the better) which brings them from third in the league in defense to 19th during this 10 game stretch.
via USA TODAY Sports
Although third to 19th in defense is a serious drop-off, you would think that their offense would help them keep their record at least above .500 through any elongated stretch of the season, but when you look at the box scores and watch the games you can see why the Jazz are losing some of these games.
It comes down to matchups, and the Jazz don’t have the size or the length or athleticism to guard the NBA’s best and brightest. Teams are able to exploit Utah’s lack of size 1-4 and Gobert’s lack of athleticism and finesse. In those five losses against the Clippers, Heat, Pelicans, 76ers and Warriors the Jazz allowed 126.2 points with opposing stars averaging 32 points.
Teams are figuring out ways to expose size miss matches with pick and rolls, due to the Jazz’s lack of versatility in perimeter defense against multiple threats outside of the three-point line. Stephen Curry scored 32 and Jimmy Butler scored 33. Rudy Gobert also struggles to contain star big men, letting Joel Embiid drop 40 points, and Zion Williamson scoring 26.
The Jazz struggle to contain the best players on the best teams and that is scary when you think about the playoffs. Utah is playing a seven-game series against the best players on the best teams, and if teams can continue to exploit mismatches that multiple star players create for the Jazz, we could see Utah having an early exit.
The Jazz may currently have the best record in the NBA, but at the end of the day no matter how great their record is, how well they are coached or how many threes they make, the Utah Jazz do not have the talent to compete against the NBA’s elite teams in the West like the Lakers, Clippers, Suns or even the Nuggets and it is starting to seem as though that will show in the playoffs.
