Utah Jazz’s unique schedule offers chance at redemption

Former Ute and current Dallas Mavericks guard Delon Wright (55) drives around Utah Jazz forward Royce O’Neale (23) at Vivint Arena in Salt Lake City on Saturday, Jan. 25, 2020. The Jazz won 112-107.   | Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News

SALT LAKE CITY — The nature of the Utah Jazz schedule presents a unique opportunity for the team in the coming days.

The last five teams the Jazz have faced — the Mavericks, Rockets, Spurs, Nuggets and Trail Blazers — are five of the next six on the schedule.

“Any time you can still feel the pain of a lack of execution or not having success in a situation it allows you to focus more, that’s true. On the same token you have to do it better” — Utah Jazz coach Quin Snyder

Of course, the last four teams the Jazz faced have won, so it’s not like they can walk into the gym and go through the same motions they went through before. The Jazz have to change and adapt and improve in order to handle the schedule between now and the All-Star break.

“If you do those things you get a better gauge of where you are, I think that’s what we’re getting right now” Jazz head coach Quin Snyder said following practice on Tuesday. “You may not like it, it may not feel good. It always feels good to win, but at the same time maybe on some level it’s what a team needs to take more steps.”

This could end up being a very educational and instructional stretch for the Jazz who have underperformed through the last four games in exactly the areas that they pride themselves on: defense and ball movement.

“For instance, being shifted on the weak side, we need to have our arms up more, we need to do a better job of containing the ball,” Snyder said. “Containing the ball is both in transition, and when someone is dribbling the ball in a pick-and-roll or it’s a live dribble in just a straight isolation situation.”

It’s been some of those isolation situations that have hurt the Jazz recently, especially when it’s crafty guards who work the perimeter and the midrange, or when a stretch-five pulls Rudy Gobert out to the perimeter.

David Zalubowski, AP

Utah Jazz guard Joe Ingles, front, drives past Denver Nuggets forward Will Barton, back right, as he gets caught in a pick set by Utah center Rudy Gobert during the first half of an NBA basketball game Thursday, Jan. 30, 2020, in Denver.

“If you don’t play teams that play in isolation a lot then you don’t work on isolation”, Snyder said.

But, in addition to the uniqueness of the opponents on the schedule, there is a stroke of luck in the timing. The Jazz, who last played on Saturday, will have had three consecutive days off before going up against the Nuggets on Wednesday night at Vivint Arena.

Joe Ingles noted on Tuesday the importance of finding days to practice during the regular season and how valuable it can be, especially when knowing they are going to be facing teams that have already found a way to disrupt the Jazz.

Gobert said much of the same and added that he’s seen the offense suffer as the defense has declined.

“The reason that we had been so good is that we were sharing it,” Gobert said. “We don’t lose that every time it gets tough.”

As the 32-17 Jazz prepare for Wednesday’s game against the Nuggets, and the games that will follow, Snyder said that there could be a little bit of an advantage to playing the same five teams so close together.

“Any time you can still feel the pain of a lack of execution or not having success in a situation it allows you to focus more, that’s true,” Snyder said. “On the same token you have to do it better.”

The sting is definitely still there for the Jazz, who feel they played out of character and can be better than the last four games indicate. In order to prove that, they’ll have to do things much differently or they could be headed for the same result.

from Deseret News https://ift.tt/2GXdDfs