Three thoughts on the Utah Jazz’s 124-86 loss to the Portland Trail Blazers from Salt Lake Tribune Jazz beat writer Andy Larsen.
1. Trying to keep the rhythm, the team failed to do so
After playing significant minutes in Tuesday’s game, there was a question whether or not the Jazz’s best players would suit up for the their final preseason game tonight. In the end, the decision was a compromise: they’d play them for the first half, but not the second half. The idea was for the team to keep the rhythm going from what had been a solid preseason.
Welp. Instead, the Jazz were down 60-35 going into the half, with the starters a combined 6-24 from the field with 10 turnovers to boot. The beat had officially stopped.
Some of this, I think, was simply poor shotmaking — the Jazz bricked plenty of open threes all game long, including in the first half. That’ll happen sometimes.
More worrying, though, was the interior struggles, where rookie center Donovan Clingan had a field day. Clingan was one of the best rim protectors in recent college memory last season, a la Walker Kessler — but Clingan’s much thicker than Kessler is, and it showed. The Jazz, Kessler included, repeatedly ran into the giant down low with limited success.
The Jazz had performed well enough against the other shotblockers they’ve played this preseason, like Dereck Lively and Victor Wembanyama — but the 3-point shot was working better then, too. Perhaps that was the difference, but regardless, this was ugly.
They’ll now have five days to figure things out before the team’s opening regular season game against Memphis.
2. Sloppy, wild defense
While the offense was the worst part of the game for the Jazz, the team’s defense was also pretty poor Friday night, too. Throughout the rest of preseason, I’ve felt that the defense was pretty decent, impressed that they weren’t making the mistakes they did for so much of the 2023-24 season. From the get-go tonight, that wasn’t the case.
Take this play, for example. First, I’m confused why the Jazz are trapping a 6-9 playmaker in Deni Avdija — he’s just going to be able to see over the much shorter Keyonte George in order to make the pass. Taylor Hendricks seemingly calls for a switch on his man in the corner, who is just as open as Grant was on the other side of the arc.
The marking up here is so baffling that I thought they might have even been trying a zone at first, but of course, you wouldn’t do that after a miss when the opposition gets the ball down the court so quickly.
I could go on and on. I’m guessing at the top of Will Hardy’s concern list is the transition defense, which was a big part of their difficulties last year. Portland had 33 points off of the Jazz’s 22 turnovers, neither is a friendly number for the team.
3. Kyle Filipowski’s passing
Kyle Filipowski had four assists in his 18 minutes of play, all pretty flashy for the 6-11 big man. Here’s the video of all four:
Look at those skills! Mid-post reads, one handed bounce passes, quick flips — no pun intended — to a moving cutter, it’s really really impressive, especially for someone so young. We’ve already looked at his ability to get the ball down the floor 94 feet, but this level of playmaking is elite for a big man of any age.
I’ll be honest: I don’t think Filipowski is going to start the season with the Jazz, as he’s clearly not in the team’s 10-man rotation to start the season. Given that, it makes more sense to at least keep him seeing playing time with the G-League’s Salt Lake City Stars.
But in a season of development, Filipowski is the kind of player that the Jazz should be playing — young, precocious talent that needs big-league seasoning. He gives the team an element they don’t have elsewhere on the roster, that big-man playmaking. Finally, he’s also really, really fun to watch, which this Jazz team could use a lot more of.
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