We weren’t as tough, active — there’s a lot of adjectives to describe it. – Jazz coach Quin Snyder
SALT LAKE CITY — All that great offense the Utah Jazz showed on its three-game road trip earlier in the week must have been left behind, somewhere between here and Texas.
After averaging 117 points on 54 percent shooting in three games in Atlanta, New Orleans and Dallas, which resulted in two wins and an overtime loss, the Jazz struggled offensively most of the night against the Boston Celtics in a 112-104 loss Saturday night at Vivint Arena.
The Jazz ended up shooting just 40.7 percent from the field, 25.8 percent from 3-point range and coming up with just 16 assists, well under their average of 27 on the three-game road trip as they fell to 34-21 on the season.
“We’ve been playing about as good on offense as we can play for the last little stretch, but tonight we weren’t as good,” said Jazz coach Quin Snyder. “We weren’t real good around the rim. It makes it hard on offense when you can’t score a little bit off your defense and get stops.”
That was the other problem — defense.
The Jazz allowed the Celtics to shoot 59.2 percent from the field — the highest percentage by a Jazz opponent this year, topping the 55.4 percent against — guess who — the Celtics last month in Boston.
“They had more force, they played with more urgency,” Snyder said. “We weren’t as tough, active — there’s a lot of adjectives to describe it. They’re a good shooting team, they can get going, we have to make it harder.”
Isaiah Thomas, who came in as the NBA’s second-leading scorer at 29.9 per game, nearly matched his season average with 29 points on 9-of-16 shooting. But what really hurt the Jazz was the play of the Boston bench, which outscored Utah 50-23 as Kelly Olynyk scored 19, Gerald Green had 16 and James Young 10.
The Jazz got a good game from Gordon Hayward (“Gordon was a man the way he competed,” said Snyder), who finished with 31 points on 10-of-19 shooting,
George Hill, who missed Thursday’s game with a sore toe, struggled offensively early before scoring 13 points in the fourth quarter to finish with 22 on the night. Rudy Gobert, after a slow start, finished with his 37th double-double of the season, getting 14 points and 14 rebounds as well as two blocked shots.
The game really wasn’t as close as the final score indicates as the Jazz trailed the whole game, by as much as 23 points in the fourth quarter before a late flurry made the score respectable.
The Celtics came out on fire, sinking 10 of their first 12 shots to jump out to a 24-17 lead as Thomas scored 11 of his points, including a pair of 3-pointers. By the end of the quarter, the lead was up to 10 at 33-23 as the Celtics shot 77.8 percent for the quarter on 14 of 18 from the field. Olynyk scored the final seven points of the quarter.
In the second quarter, the Jazz fell behind 47-30 as Green scored three straight baskets for the Celtics and the deficit got as high as 19 before Utah cut the lead to 58-44 at halftime. For the half, Boston shot 66.7 percent, while the Jazz only managed 36.8 shooting.
Jazz started cutting the margin in the third quarter and had a chance to cut the lead to five around the seven-minute mark when Hill and Hayward each had wide-open 3-pointers that missed. Then at the other end, Olynyk sank a 3-pointer from out top and James Young followed with a layup to push the lead to 69-56.
Utah went into the fourth quarter still within striking distance at 77-65, but the Celtics hit their first three shots, including threes by Al Horford and Thomas, to push the lead to 20. The lead got as high as 23 at 94-71 with 7:10 left.
The Jazz made a late push, trying to duplicate the Mavericks' comeback against them on Thursday night and pulled within eight with 1:18 left, but ran out of time.
GAME NOTES: The Jazz have two games left before next weekend’s All-Star Game, both at home against the L.A. Clippers Monday night and Portland Wednesday night. After the All-Star break, the Jazz go on a three-game road trip to Milwaukee, Washington and Oklahoma City. … A month ago, the Celtics beat the Jazz 115-104 in Boston when Thomas also scored 29 points and dished out a season-high 15 assists. … Utah’s all-time record against the Celtics fell to 38-56 with the loss. … Boston starter Jae Crowder was inactive for the second straight game for “personal reasons” and Avery Bradley sat out with a sore right Achilles. … The Jazz missed Rodney Hood for the fifth straight game with a knee injury. … Last year, Utah beat Boston 111-93 at Vivint Arena.