SAN ANTONIO — The Utah Jazz lost, 126-122, to the San Antonio Spurs on Monday night. The Spurs were led by Devin Vassell and Keldon Johnson who had 24 and 21 points respectively.
Here are three keys that contributed to the Jazz’s loss:
- The Jazz were getting outplayed through most of the game on Monday night and trailed by as many as 20 points in the third quarter. They made a push late in the fourth quarter, but it was too little, too late.
- The Jazz had a really off night from a shooting perspective. It was compounded by the fact that they couldn’t get a stop. The Jazz have a tendency to let their offense impact their defense and they didn’t seem to pick up their effort on the defensive end until they made some timely buckets in the fourth quarter. They finished the night shooting 40.2% overall and 30.2% from 3-point range, but were 36.5% overall and 25.7% from 3 in the first three quarters.
- Early foul trouble on Jarred Vanderbilt and Walker Kessler changed how the Jazz were able to defend and made their night against Jakob Poeltl and Zach Collins very difficult. It also forced the Jazz to play some particularly small lineups. Then, when they were able to plug in Vanderbilt and Kessler, both were tentative on the defensive end.