Broken record.
The Jazz turn it over… the Jazz fail to get back – the Jazz turn it over… the Jazz fail to get back – the Jazz turn it over… The Jazz fail to get back.
There’s a scratch in the team’s vinyl.
Annealing that scratch against the Knicks last night probably wouldn’t have mattered—the Jazz did not shoot the ball well and eventually crumbled in the fourth to a 119-103 loss.
The Jazz started the game strong with good offensive movement and had a one-point lead at the end of the first quarter. But a flurry of turnovers in the second quarter and what seemed like continuous fast breaking by the Knicks cast the die. The Knicks had 21 fast break points in the first half and the Jazz never led again.
Half time coach’s interview:
Lauren Green: “What do you guys have to do to change that (she’s speaking of the fast break points and the 10-point Knick half-time lead) in the second half?”
Jazz Assistant Coach Andrew Ward: “Yeah, we just gotta run back. We need to take better care of the ball.”
Hmm, seems simple enough. But it didn’t happen. The Jazz continued to cough up the ball and often at the top of their set offense leading to more Knick dunks and layups. They continued to defend the running Knicks on the back foot the rest of the night.
It’s an easy playbook when you’re playing this sad rendition of the Jazz, and the Knicks had obviously read it. On defense you want to get into the Jazz. Pressure their actions because they rarely alternate off it and they likely will hand you the ball once you’ve busted their first-action options.
Just push on offense. Even teams that are usually not fast-breaking teams run on the Jazz because they know they struggle to get back.
The Knicks did both of those things and won their nineth straight.
On the brighter note, Keyonte George had another positive game with 15 points of 6-13 shooting and 3 for 7 from three. He had six dimes and only two turnovers—we love that 3 to 1 ratio for Mr. George.
I suppose the silver-lining perspective on the Jazz’ apparently uncorrectable turnover/transition-defense problem is that it is keeping the team from winning games. It will likely be a primary cause for the Jazz remaining in the bottom five in the league and having a fair shot at Flagg or the other coveted top prospects come summer.
But the consistency in the way the Jazz lose is exasperating to watch. It would be nice to see some improvement… like, running back more… faster.