I thought we got good looks in the first half. Once we got down in the second half, obviously there were some bad shots. At the beginning we took good shots, just didn’t knock them down. It was just one of those nights where you needed the energy for 48 minutes, and we lost our energy and they took advantage. – Trey Burke
SAN ANTONIO — After his team was absolutely dismantled Sunday night by the world champion San Antonio Spurs, who held the Jazz to season lows in points and shooting in an 89-69 loss, Jazz coach Quin Snyder was asked if the Spurs were the teachers and his team the students at the AT&T Center.
Snyder, who used to coach in the Spurs’ organization for the Austin Toros’ D-League team, picked right up on the analogy.
“Clearly, that’s an understatement,’’ he said. “They’re the champions. If we can be in that classroom, it’s a good thing for us. Tonight we were in the classroom, and that’s what it’s about. Hopefully we’ll continue to grow. We’re not going to graduate. It’s a process.’’
Snyder’s right, the Jazz are a long way from "graduating" after shooting just 33.3 percent from the field and scoring the fewest points in more than nine years when they scored 65 points in a loss to Memphis in January 2006.
Of course the Jazz were playing Sunday against the defending NBA champions, who were playing with their usual starting lineup for only the third time all season. But the Jazz were clearly overmatched in a game they trailed by as much as 28 points as they fell to 14-27 on the season.
“Tonight was hard,’’ Snyder said. “We really struggled offensively. We ran into a team that was really physical with us. I don’t think we were prepared. You can talk about it as much as you want, but they made the game really hard for us offensively, and we weren’t determined enough. We didn’t play with enough force on that end of the court.’’
When the Jazz beat the Spurs 100-96 back in early December to break a nine-game losing streak, the Spurs were playing without Tiago Splitter in a game that Kawhi Leonard was injured. Both have missed a lot of games this year, and Leonard, last year’s NBA Finals MVP, only rejoined the Spurs Friday night after missing 15 straight games with a wrist injury.
Those two were a big factor in the Spurs' win as Splitter led the scoring with 14 points, while Leonard chipped in 12 points and nine rebounds. As always, the Spurs were balanced, with Danny Green adding 13, including three 3-pointers in the third quarter when the Spurs blew the game open, and 11 from the reliable Tim Duncan, who also had six boards. Aron Baynes added 12 points and 11 rebounds off the bench.
The one bright spot for the Jazz was second-year center Rudy Gobert, who had still another solid effort with a team-high 13 points and 18 rebounds, the latter, a career high. The only other Jazz player in double figures was Gordon Hayward, who had 10, while Derrick Favors had nine points and 13 rebounds.
Everyone had a tough night shooting except for Gobert, who was 5-of-10 from the field. Both Hayward and Burke went 4-for-15, both reserve guards Dante Exum and Rodney Hood went 1-for-5, while Favors was 4-for-11.
“I thought we got good looks in the first half,’’ said Burke. “Once we got down in the second half, obviously there were some bad shots. At the beginning we took good shots, just didn’t knock them down. It was just one of those nights where you needed the energy for 48 minutes, and we lost our energy and they took advantage.’’
On top of everything else, Hood left the game early in the fourth quarter with a foot injury, the same injured left foot that kept him out of 10 games earlier this season. Although X-rays were negative, Hood was to be sent home to Salt Lake, rather than join the Jazz for the rest of the road trip to Cleveland and Milwaukee.
Although the Jazz praised the Spurs' defense, they weren’t about to give themselves all the credit.
“It’s never just your defense,’’ said Spurs coach Gregg Popovich. “I think they had a tough night shooting-wise too. It’s a little of both.’’
Splitter said, “I thing we did a great job. Last game, they scored over 100, so we really improved from that part. Everybody played solid.’’
The Jazz were down 10-3 early and trailed 23-15 after the first quarter when they shot 24 percent on 6-of-25. By halftime the lead was 43-27 as the Jazz could only manage 6-of-21. After three quarters, the lead increased to 66-47 and in the fourth quarter, the Spurs led by as much as 28 points before settling for the 20-point win.
Snyder isn’t about to hit the panic button, allowing his team to take Monday off while they have some annual meetings with league representatives at the team hotel. He continues to look at the big picture.
“Anytime when you get a window into your team and into yourself individually, it’s one you’ve got to pay attention to and learn from,’’ he said. “I think there’s a lot of things our players can do better at. We see some windows where guys are trying to make plays they’re not able to make yet, but they will be able to make eventually.’’