Miami • After winning five straight games against five teams with losing records, the Jazz’s matchup on Monday night against the decidedly above-.500 Heat was inevitably going to feel like something of a proverbial test.
So then — how exactly do you grade a game in which Utah was competitive for most of the night with one of the league’s top teams, but which ultimately saw it come up short, owing to one regrettable stretch?
A crucial 10-0 run by Miami midway through the fourth quarter wound up proving the difference, as the Jazz saw their winning streak snapped with a 107-104 loss at American Airlines Arena.
“We’re not in the mood for moral victories anymore,” guard Donovan Mitchell said afterward. “We’ve passed that point.”
And if it wasn’t clear enough by the team’s mood following the loss itself, it was made that way by the pair of moves the team transacted both before and after the matchup.
A short time before tipoff, word broke that the Jazz had traded oft-injured guard Dante Exum plus two future second-round picks to the Cavaliers for scoring guard Jordan Clarkson. Then, after the game, came the news that veteran forward Jeff Green was being waived, and G League forward Rayjon Tucker will be added to the roster.
That proved the capper to a tumultuous day that saw Utah drop a game it easily could have won.
In fact, for a time, it seemed Utah was well on its way.
After allowing 32 points to the Heat in the first quarter, the defense stiffened up considerably. Miami scored just 21 points in the second on 9-of-24 shooting. In the third, the Heat got just 23, making only 7 of 23 shots.
Meanwhile, Bojan Bogdanovic was heating up, scoring 10 in the third after dropping only five points in the entire first half, owing to foul trouble. And with Emmanuel Mudiay bolstering the scoring load off the bench, the Jazz surged ahead going into the final 12 minutes.
It wouldn’t last, though.
Once the final period started, shots started going awry, the ball started being fumbled away, and the defense started to crack.
“We were up at the start of the fourth, and there’s a lot of things that we can control when they made their run, [things] we can do better,” said Rudy Gobert. “… We have to know that when we have a lead like that at the start of the fourth, we have to play the right way. We can’t allow these stupid mistakes. We’re gonna miss shots, and we might turn it over sometimes trying to make a play, but we can’t have too many of these lack-of-focus mistakes.”
The dagger sequence came about four minutes into the final period, when Gobert accidentally tipped in a Heat basket while going for a rebound; Royce O’Neale coughed up the ball, leading to a Tyler Herro 3; Goran Dragic buried another 3; and Derrick Jones Jr. picked off a pass and rumbled to layup for the decisive 10-0 run.
Herro was particularly problematic down the stretch, as he hit 4 of 6 shots in the fourth quarter in totaling nine of his 17 points.
“He kicked my ass — three straight possessions. Credit to him,” said Mitchell. “… He capitalized on my poor defense, and I’ll take the blame for that. He kicked my ass for three straight possessions.”
After a mostly efficient first three quarters, Utah wound up shooting just 9 for 24 in the fourth, while Miami made 11 of 21 in the fourth.
“I thought we got tired,” said coach Quin Snyder. “We had some really good looks. They trapped us a couple possessions early. Maybe we didn’t handle it as well as we could have.”
Joe Ingles did his part, hitting 6 of 11 from deep to score a game-high 27 points. Gobert had a beast of a game also, making 9 of 11 shots in totaling 18 points, 19 rebounds and five blocks, while dominating down low defensively for extended stretches.
However, the Jazz could not overcome poor nights from Mitchell (13 points on 5-for-18 shooting, four turnovers) and Bogdanovic (19 points on 4 for 13 from the field).
And so, the Jazz fell to 18-12 on the season, and took not much solace from having mostly played well, given the end result.
“We want to set the bar high. We need to play better,” said Snyder. “We have started to play better, we’re a team that’s improving, but that’s not enough. I don’t think any of our guys are satisfied with that.”
