NBA – Against the Hornets, the Jazz signed the best half in its history (82 points) before signing a much less convincing second half.
In post-match press conference, Will Hardy does not have the cheerful face of a coach whose team has just won. It must be said that his Jazz, on the Hornets floor, showed two faces: a first half impressively efficient, a second much less convincing.
« Offensively in the first half, with 25 passes, I can’t imagine we could play better than that. It was sort of the ideal 24 minutes for us on offense », Describes the Salt Lake City coach.
A Collin Sexton untenable in penetration, as effective in scoring as in creation (24 points and 13 assists), a tandem Lauri Markkanen (33 points and 12 rebounds) – John Collins (20 points and 10 rebounds) much too strong at the inside and who spends his time in the air, or to punish from afar in the case of the Finn (7/12), a ball which does not stop circulating with a minimum of errors…
And so many holes in the opposing defense, the worst in the entire league, that only Nick Richards (4 blocks in addition to his 26 points and 13 rebounds) could not fill. It is in this context that the Jazz achieved a franchise record: 82 points scored in the first period on enormous success percentages (65% including 13/22 behind the arc). With a gap that seemed insurmountable for the locals, trailing by 35 points (47-82).
A double side by representative
But the beautiful mechanics of Jazz subsequently stalled. “ In the first half, the ball moved very well. In the second half, we stopped doing all that. We stopped passing the ball around, we started playing a lot of isolations, all our decisions were late and there were a lot of turnovers », Lists the coach, whose team only lost 13 balls overall, for 38 assists.
Much less skillful after going to the locker room (45% including 4/19 from a distance), his players still found a way to score 52 more points. The problem is that they had a lot more difficulty stopping their opponents, starting with an unleashed PJ Washington, especially behind the arc: 7/9 from a distance, 17/22 in total for 43 points, including 31 after the break. A career record equaled.
« We lost sight of him several times and once his shots went in, even the difficult shots became easier.
», notes Lauri Markkanen. Defensive failures judged “ horrible » by his coach: “ It escaped us in our (prohibited) zone and I found that taking into account the players at the back (from areas) was atrocious tonight and it’s something to we have to work. »
The Jazz, after scoring 47 points in the first quarter alone, conceded 41 in the third and lost the second half by 23 points. At least, victory is at the end for Will Hardy who qualifies this displayed double face: “ We are not as good as in the first half, nor as bad as in the second half. If when you came this evening, you had told us that we would win by 12 points away, we would have accepted it. »
2024-01-28 15:10:03
#worst #Jazz #match #Basket #USA
