The Jazz started the season with a clear ambition and easily transformed into motivation: to show that the reconstruction of the franchise during the offseason was not going to result in an accumulation of defeats.
With 10 wins in 13 games and first place in the Western Conference to begin with, the mission was more than successful. The collective of Will Hardy’s troops was exciting, evolving with a lot of energy.
This seductive face, we did not see it in the defeat against the Pistons. However, the Detroit players were not the most dangerous team: they had played the day before in Denver and won only one game (against the Nuggets precisely) away from Michigan in 11 games…
“Our pick-and-roll defense was very poor”recognizes the coach for the Deseret News. “I have to do better to give my instructions. We were not physical on the ball carrier. »
Bojan Bogdanovic and his teammates have indeed stuck 125 points to the Jazz, shooting at 50% success at 3-pts. How to explain such a failure in defense?
“I think that, given our start to the season, we thought it would be easier”concedes Malik Beasley. “We can’t play like that. You have to have a dog mentality. We have to fight for every ball, try to win every match. »
While they had things to prove at the start of the year, would the Jazz players have been smug before facing the weak Pistons, the worst team in the Eastern Conference?
“You have to pay tribute to the Pistons: they were hungry, they were aggressive, physical from the start. Not us “, confirms Will Hardy. “We arrived at this level because we had a particular motivation. There, in the first period, we did not have it. » And it pays cash in the NBA…
| Shots | Bounces | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Players | GM | Minimum | Shots | 3 points | LF | Off | Def | Early | pd | bp | Int | CT | party | Points |
| Lauri Markkanen | 19 | 33.2 | 53.9 | 36.1 | 82.1 | 2.5 | 6.0 | 8.5 | 2.4 | 2.0 | 0.6 | 0.9 | 1.9 | 22.4 |
| Jordan Clarkson | 19 | 31.3 | 42.8 | 37.5 | 84.6 | 1.3 | 2.6 | 3.9 | 4.6 | 2.5 | 0.4 | 0.5 | 1.7 | 19.0 |
| Malik Beasley | 19 | 26.2 | 43.8 | 41.4 | 93.8 | 0.6 | 3.0 | 3.6 | 1.1 | 0.9 | 0.9 | 0.2 | 1.1 | 13.6 |
| Collin Sexton | 19 | 22.1 | 45.9 | 35.3 | 80.8 | 0.8 | 1.7 | 2.5 | 1.9 | 1.5 | 0.6 | 0.1 | 2.1 | 12.9 |
| Kelly Olynyk | 19 | 27.0 | 54.7 | 50.0 | 81.0 | 1.4 | 3.5 | 4.9 | 3.1 | 2.5 | 1.2 | 0.5 | 4.3 | 12.6 |
| Mike Conley | 17 | 29.3 | 39.2 | 38.6 | 76.5 | 0.4 | 2.0 | 2.4 | 7.9 | 1.5 | 1.2 | 0.3 | 2.1 | 10.2 |
| Talen Horton-tucker | 19 | 17.3 | 41.1 | 26.4 | 76.5 | 0.6 | 2.1 | 2.7 | 2.5 | 1.2 | 0.9 | 0.4 | 1.6 | 8.2 |
| Jarred Vanderbilt | 17 | 25.1 | 55.6 | 36.8 | 64.0 | 2.5 | 6.1 | 8.6 | 2.9 | 1.8 | 1.1 | 0.3 | 3.5 | 7.8 |
| Walker Kessler | 16 | 14.8 | 68.5 | 0.0 | 50.0 | 2.2 | 2.8 | 5.0 | 0.8 | 0.6 | 0.3 | 1.3 | 1.8 | 5.3 |
| Rudy Gay | 12 | 15.7 | 36.2 | 26.5 | 50.0 | 0.5 | 2.9 | 3.4 | 0.8 | 0.8 | 0.4 | 0.5 | 1.3 | 4.5 |
| Ochai Agbaji | 6 | 11.1 | 42.1 | 0.0 | 57.1 | 0.7 | 1.0 | 1.7 | 0.2 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 3.3 |
| Simone Fontecchio | 11 | 7.0 | 37.5 | 33.3 | 50.0 | 0.4 | 0.7 | 1.1 | 0.3 | 0.4 | 0.2 | 0.3 | 0.6 | 3.0 |
| Nickeil Alexander-Walker | 10 | 7.9 | 33.3 | 30.8 | 85.7 | 0.0 | 0.7 | 0.7 | 1.1 | 0.8 | 0.5 | 0.3 | 1.2 | 2.8 |
| Udoka Azubuike | 5 | 4.0 | 83.3 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.4 | 1.4 | 1.8 | 0.2 | 0.4 | 0.4 | 0.4 | 0.2 | 2.0 |
| Micah Potter | 2 | 5.9 | 100.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.5 | 1.0 | 1.5 | 0.5 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 2.0 |
| Leandro Bolmaro | 3 | 7.1 | 28.6 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.3 | 0.0 | 0.3 | 0.7 | 0.7 | 0.7 | 0.3 | 1.3 | 1.3 |
