NEW YORK — While the Utah Jazz felt energized, confident and proud after a win on Friday in Toronto following a hectic trade deadline, they weren’t able to pull off the same kind of comeback victory against the New York Knicks on Saturday night.
It was a difficult night for the Jazz to try to get into any sort of real rhythm. They made a few runs and they had some good moments, but they also had some really bad moments and there were a lot of fouls and a clock malfunction and technical free throws and Lauri Markkanen had his slowest start of the season, and, and, and.
Even so, this scrappy group was able to stick right there with the Knicks…until they couldn’t anymore.
Fourth quarter
Let’s turn to Jazz head coach Will Hardy for a quick recap of the Jazz’s final 12 minutes against the Knicks:
“The fourth quarter was just sloppy,” he said. “They shot 18 free throws in the fourth quarter, they had seven offensive rebounds for 12 second-chance points in the fourth quarter, and ultimately that decided the game. We didn’t do a good enough job.”
Then you add in that the Knicks shot 50% from 3-point range in the fourth and had just a single turnover and it makes for a pretty embarrassing final period.
The Jazz didn’t end up getting outscored too much in the fourth, because Markkanen finally found the bottom of the net and scored 17 of his 29 points in that quarter alone, but the Jazz’s missteps on the glass and their lack of discipline on defense nearly negated all of Markkanen’s offensive work.
“It’s always the little things that add up to winning and losing,” Hardy said. “Our discipline on the ball needs to improve, our discipline staying down on shot fakes needs to improve.”
Offensive rebounds/second-chance points
A little disappointing for the Jazz to have a poor rebounding night after they did so well on the glass in Toronto. But, like so many things with this team, building consistency is exactly what they’re trying to do.
“I thought last game we took a big stride as a team against a really good offensive rebounding team,” Hardy said. “Tonight, obviously we did not take care of the glass well enough at all — 20 offensive rebounds, and like I said, seven of those being in the fourth quarter, puts you in a tough spot. The margins in this league for winning are already very slim.”
While there are always going to be some weird tips and bounces that lead to offensive rebounds for both teams, the Jazz have to do a better job of their point of attack defense and finding someone to hit after a shot goes up. Here are just four of the Knicks offensive boards against the Jazz from Saturday night and you can see a mix of problems.
In the first clip, Udoka Azubuike fails to recognize that his man is trailing behind him and instead of holding Isaiah Hartenstein off he just blindly jumps and loses out to Hartenstein. In the second clip, Talen Horton-Tucker is just walking around and not even paying attention to the fact that Hartenstein is crashing in. In the third, the Jazz already are on the wrong end of a mismatch after a switch and then they just try to outjump the Knicks and it ends up putting them in bad rotations. In the final clip you can see that the confusion on the glass is caused by a failure to contain the ball at the point of attack. Something Hardy said is an issue that the Jazz have addressed and will continue to work on.
“I think it’s just finding a body,” Markkanen said. “We’ve got to get a hit on a body rather than trying to outjump them. Of course, some bad bounces, long rebounds, but mostly it’s on us finding a body on the shot and not leaking out. We need all five guys on the boards.”
Talen Horton-Tucker
Now that Mike Conley is not with the Jazz, it is going to mean an increased role not just for Collin Sexton, but also for Horton-Tucker, who had a pretty good game for the most part on Saturday night.
He scored a season-high 23 points, on 8 of 12 from the field, and had seven assists.
“Talen is growing,” Hardy said. “And to do all of that on the offensive end while being put on Jalen Brunson on the defensive … I think overall Talen played a very good game tonight. And again, it’s about consistency and trying to keep that balance in his brain of attacking to score and attacking for a teammate.”
Horton-Tucker is certainly growing as a facilitator and that’s helped by the fact that he can be such a force when he’s going downhill. What we’re going to be looking for throughout the rest of the season is how much growth he makes as a decision-maker.
There are times when Horton-Tucker can tend to take a bad shot early in the clock or when he has open teammates (like midrange fadeaways, forced 3-pointers and crazy circus layups) and sometimes he starts driving without a backup plan, which leads to some tough defensive possessions.
But there are also times when he uses his length and driving ability to his advantage and either gets a clean look at the basket or he finds the open man when the defense collapses. That’s when he is at his best.
Of course, it’s kind of hard to be mad at some of his more iffy shots when they are all going in like they were on Saturday, but Horton-Tucker knows that Hardy wants him to clean up his shot selection and it’s all a work in progress. It’s going to be an important couple of months in Horton-Tucker’s career from now until the end of the season.