The Jazz played bad basketball and they paid for it. They were soft on both sides of the ball, sloppy on offense, sleepy on defense and never really put up much of a fight in a game that was kind of a big deal.
Even if you don’t care about the Jazz’s in-season tournament chances and you put it out of your mind that there was money on the line for the Jazz in Tuesday night’s game, it’s certainly a game that will matter in the Western Conference standings. The game was broadcast on TNT and that’s the last game the Jazz have on either TNT or ESPN for the rest of the season.
This will the the last time that most of the NBA’s national audience will see the Jazz for the rest of the NBA calendar. What will they remember.
Miscommunication and falling asleep against Anthony Davis certainly isn’t going to leave a good impression on anyone who might have been watching the Jazz for the first time this season. And no one is going to be lining up to watch the Jazz if they remember how little the trio of John Collins, Lauri Markkanen and Kelly Olynyk did against Davis and LeBron James.
Of course, the arguments could be made that there are very few players who are able to stop the likes of James and Davis and the fact that the Jazz are playing without their main rim protector really changes things.
Those are fair points, but that doesn’t excuse the lack of effort on the defensive end from just about everyone on the Jazz roster.
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