In an ideal position after two meetings, the Utah Jazz are letting the series slip away against the Clippers, beaten for the 3rd time in a row this night by the Clippers, yet without Kawhi Leonard and in a hostile environment. They struggled defensively, conceding 119 points. The Clippers shot 51.2%.
“I didn’t feel like we were playing with a sense of urgency at the start of the game. Obviously we were doing a great job putting in shots and scoring early in the game, but somehow I wish we had missed shots so maybe we thought we had to defend to win. this match. And we didn’t. ” Rudy Gobert
Rudy Gobert doesn’t really explain this lack of commitment and sense of urgency.
“I do not know why. Maybe fatigue, maybe because Kawhi wasn’t playing. It could be explained by many things. I have a feeling that we have to be a dominant team defensively to win and that starts with me. There were a lot of times when guys attacked me and I didn’t stop them. So it starts with me. Then I had the feeling that there was no communication at the start of the match. No emergency.” Rudy Gobert
Offensively throughout the match, the performance of the Jazz was quite good. They took 12 of their first 17 long shots and finished 45% on the shot, but little by little they saw their outside skill give up and finished at 20/54. As the defense was not there, the Clippers gradually took control. Difficult to keep pace when the opposing team shoots 60.9% in the first quarter and 54.8% at the break and plants 16 of its 40 attempts behind the arc.
“We have to understand that we have to closeouts on these guys and make their lives difficult. They had a lot of open shoots and we have to make it more difficult for them. We no longer have a choice. ” Donovan mitchell
Defense has been the basis of Jazz for years, even if this season they have become one of the best attacks in the league with an impressive 3-point yield, but we know that in the playoffs it is defense that makes win matches. In the second half as it was still not on the level and since the shots no longer returned with a 6/22 including a terrible 0/10 at 3-pts in the 3rd quarter, the Clippers made the break with a quarter won 32-18.
“In the 3rd quarter we didn’t have so many good positions. Some shoots were complicated, low percentage. But we’ve been like this all season. ” Quin Snyder
The Jazz did a few short runs in the last quarter to get back to 4 points, but Reggie Jackson’s two shots in quick succession hurt a lot. Mitchell’s 3-point shot gave new hope, short-lived as Paul George and Terance Mann also found the net. They didn’t make the necessary stops.
“They played small ball most of the game, so we need to communicate better at all costs. We let them have easy baskets. We need to be more present on the man and better defend on their shoots. ” Bojan bogdanovic
From now on there is no longer the right to make mistakes under penalty of wasting a great opportunity after a magnificent regular season.
“It was a winnable game for us. But we can’t just sit there and sulk – the series isn’t over. We still have a lot to give and a lot of juice. We just have to get out there and play with a level of desperation we’ve never experienced before. Or we’ll be home on vacation. ” Donovan mitchell
“We have to do everything we can to win this game. We know we’re going to need a better team effort than what we’ve produced tonight. Hope we have a greater sense of urgency. If we lose, we’ll go home. We cannot be in a more urgent situation than that. ” Rudy Gobert
See you tomorrow night at the Staples Center.
“Looking at how we’ve played all season, we deserve to have a Game 7 in front of our home crowd. But first you have to defend. ” Bojan Bogdanovic
Via Jazz.com
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