Boston • How legit is the recent stretch of success by the Jazz?
Friday was not much in the way of validation.
The team has certainly shown improvement in some areas, with better passing leading to fewer turnovers, resulting in both better offense and defense. The shooting has been solid, especially at the rim. The implementation of some zone schemes has been productive (well, discounting Wednesday’s Detroit game).
And as a result, there certainly were some positive results heading into Friday’s matchup against the Celtics at TD Garden — notably, the season’s first three-game winning streak, and a stretch of nine victories in their past 12 games.
Those positive results, however, did not carry over into Friday.
The Jazz were obliterated 126-97 by the Celtics.
At one point in the first quarter, they were shooting 3 for 16. With their next make, they were 4 for 22. At the end of the first quarter, they were 5 for 27 overall, and 1 of 12 from 3.
A dream-sequence stretch of five consecutive made baskets late in the second quarter got Utah all the way up to 15 of 49 (30.6%) overall and 4 for 20 from 3 … and to within 71-40 on the scoreboard.
They wound up shooting 6 of 34 from beyond the arc for game.
And now for the bad news.
It doesn’t get any easier.
This part of the schedule is brutal. This road trip, at Boston, Philadelphia, and Milwaukee (with the first two on a back-to-back) is against the Eastern Conference’s top three teams. And while the Jazz follow that up with a six-game homestand, it begins against the reigning NBA champion Nuggets, who, after a somewhat slow start, have now worked their way up to a top-three spot in the West.
“I appreciate the nightmare fuel,” head coach Will Hardy deadpanned pregame when asked about the stretch.
While noting that his sole goal for Friday was to focus on and get through the Celtics game, the coach did concede that such a sequence of games might well be telling.
“Playing really good teams always tests you. We’ve been playing good basketball of late, but to go on the road and play high-level opponents in great, hard atmospheres is going to be really good for our group,” he said. “It’s going to test us both on the court from a physical standpoint and test our emotional and mental stability.
“The thing I’m probably most focused on over these next couple of games, is can we keep our heads when it doesn’t go well?” Hardy added. “… Can we withstand that and stick to what we’re trying to do and not go rogue?”
Well, not so much on this occasion. A 17-0 Boston run in the second quarter was pretty much the death knell.
“If we don’t start off physical and aggressive, that continues to follow us throughout the game,” said forward John Collins, who finished with 12 points and 11 rebounds.
Though what happened at the start of Friday’s game is certainly unique and anomalous to some degree, the end result nevertheless shows just how far the Jazz have to go in some areas.
The biggest one, per Hardy, is on-the-ball defense. While conceding that one-on-one defense in the NBA is incredibly difficult owing to both the talent level and the rules, he nevertheless argued that his players need to do better. Situational awareness must improve. So too must simple effort.
“Scheme is important, team defense is important, but I think it all starts with individual pride,” he said.
Offensively, the Jazz have become a team predicated upon off-ball movement, but must adapt to switching defenses by improving their efficacy in pick-and-roll scenarios, the coach said.
It wasn’t that none of that went to plan Friday.
The coach didn’t hate the way his team played at the beginning, even though they were missing a ton of shots. But as the hole started getting bigger, the habits started slipping.
“The games against the really good teams, they test your ability to recognize what’s real and what’s not, and what was a missed shot on a good execution play vs. what was a bad possession,” said Hardy. “Early in the game I thought we were doing pretty well with our execution — and then I thought it just slipped.”
Collins added that continuing to do all the little things, keeping the attention to detail tends to start faltering in those times.
“That’s probably some of the hardest basketball to play,” he said. “… Those are the moments that truly build character for us. It’s a corny cliché, but those are the hard moments we have to learn from.”
The third quarter was better, with Utah playing Boston to a near-draw, and seeing a 31-point halftime deficit only become a 32-point end-of-third-quarter deficit.
Several players noted postgame that they’d compounded their own misfortune before halftime by resorting to too much one-on-one play. They felt like they got back on track a bit after the break, even if the ultimate result wasn’t indicative of a ton of progress.
“Work through it as a team — nobody’s gonna climb back up from that kinda hole by themselves,” said Lauri Markkanen, who had 17 points, five rebounds, and five assists.
“Just try to cut the lead little by little and let’s not try to make the home-run plays — let’s do it together,” added Collin Sexton, who totaled 13 points. “When we’re playing together and doing it as one, you can tell the flow of the game was totally different.”
Hardy was pleased that the third quarter indicated that “we didn’t just lay down and die.” He didn’t make up for the game being all but over after 24 minutes.
Still, the Jazz get a chance to do it again Saturday against the 76ers.
Back-to-backs are no NBA player’s favorite occurrence. But the Jazz can’t help but look forward to this one, eager for a chance to right some wrongs.
“This is not a group that makes excuses. Our locker room, right now, is not happy with the performance tonight and is ready to get back out there tomorrow,” said Hardy.
“Oh yeah, definitely, especially just to wash this one down the drain,” said Sexton. “This one tomorrow is gonna be big.”
It probably will be.
Either the Jazz are going to bounce back and prove their recent run has not been a facade, that they are capable of delivering high-level performances against top opponents, or the notion that they were feasting on low-level foes and simply don’t have the capacity to hang with anyone better is going to get some heavy reinforcement.
