OAKLAND, Calif. — Unlike Wednesday, there wasn’t a motivational technical from the head coach.
There wasn’t a wake-up call.
There wasn’t a competitive basketball game or a win for the Utah Jazz, either.
All there was on this night was a big, fat loss.
Continuing a trend of not being able to string together two consecutive wins, the Jazz struggled to score against a feisty Golden State squad in a 101-88 lopsided loss at Oracle Arena.
"We got punched and we weren't ready to take that punch," said Jazz coach Quin Snyder, whose team trailed 12-0. "We have responded in those situations before, but I don't think we responded the way we needed to."
With all of the talk about the Warriors’ highly efficient offense — and it was dang good again Friday — it was Golden State’s much-improved defense that stole the show on this night.
An in-arena promotion offers evidence of a subtle shift in defensive emphasis with Steve Kerr’s Warriors. Oracle Arena fans receive a free smoothie when the home team holds opponents under 100 points, whereas most NBA teams have a giveaway for scoring a certain amount.
The Warriors helped ensure that Jamba Juices around the Bay Area would be busier Saturday.
Golden State held Utah scoreless for the first four minutes and to a mere 13 points on 25 percent shooting in the first quarter, setting the stage for an eventual 30-point lead.
"Tough, tough, tough," Jazz center Enes Kanter said of his team's early struggles. "You cannot play a team like that on the road. Golden State, they know what they're doing."
The second quarter only got slightly better for Utah, which put up just 19 points to head into the locker room down 54-32.
By the time this blowout ended, the Jazz had one of their worst offensive outputs of the season. Two nights after scoring 111 points in a big comeback win over Oklahoma City, the Jazz failed to reach the 90-point mark for only the third time while shooting 42.7 percent.
The fact that the Warriors, who are 9-2 for the first time since the 1972-73 season, were capable of playing such stellar defense wasn’t a surprise to Jazz coach Quin Snyder.
In his pregame comments, Snyder said he believes the Warriors’ defense, the second-ranked D in the NBA before Friday (95.5 points per 100 possessions), gets overshadowed by the team’s stunningly good offense.
“We don’t hear as much about the defensive presence that this team has,” Snyder said, “and how difficult they are to score on.”
With a back-to-back Saturday night at home against New Orleans, Snyder preserved his starters’ legs in this blowout by mostly going with his second unit in the fourth quarter.
If there’s one upside to Friday’s shellacking it’s that none of the starters played more than Gordon Hayward’s 27 minutes. Kanter, in fact, only saw 20 minutes of action.
Despite limited playing time, Kanter led the Jazz with 18 points but was frustrated with his five turnovers. As a team, Utah had 20 turnovers, leading to 28 points for the Warriors.
Golden State, meanwhile, got the balanced type of scoring that Snyder was concerned about leading up to the game. The Warriors were able to demolish the Jazz despite the fact that Steph Curry only scored eight points and Klay Thompson had just 14. Those two came in averaging 48.4 combined points.
Sixth man Andre Iguodala led the Warriors with 17 points, while Golden State also got nice contributions from Harrison Barnes (14 points, 11 rebounds), Marreese Speights (14 points) and Andrew Bogut (12 points).
“They can overwhelm you in a number of ways,” Snyder said. “Their pace is so fast, it’s hard to find them all the time.”
“They just have so many weapons,” Hayward said at Friday’s shootaround. “I think it’s one of those things where you try to take away what they like to do most. If they’re firing on all cylinders and everybody’s hitting them, then you have to outscore them.”
On this night, however, the only time that happened was the fourth quarter, which Utah won 31-16 to make the final score a bit more respectable. Still, Golden State easily defeated the Jazz for the fifth straight time for the first time in franchise history.
On a positive note, Warriors coach Steve Kerr noted that it’s interesting how he and Snyder both run similar types of offenses with their new teams — something he said probably goes back to their San Antonio roots in the NBA.
“We have some similar actions. I know we have the same beliefs – ball movement, spacing, flow and pace,” Kerr said of the Jazz. “Our personnel’s a little different. They’ve got some big guys inside that they like to pound you with.”
Only one team did the pounding on this night — and it wasn’t Utah, which dropped to 5-8.
When told of Kerr’s comments about the similar styles, Snyder quipped, “I hope we play like them.”
While it’s unlikely Utah will get a backcourt that’s as explosive as Golden State’s, the team will continue to work on trying to match the ball movement the Warriors use in mimicking the Spurs.
Snyder credited the Warriors’ maturity and how well-connected they are on the court.
“One of the things that makes them so good is the way they pass the ball and how unselfish they are,” Snyder said. “That’s something that’s a credit to Steve first and as well as their guys that they embrace that style.”
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