‘We have to be honest with ourselves’: Utah Jazz recognize problems but express frustration after big loss

SALT LAKE CITY — Quin Snyder was later than usual to his postgame press conference, and by the time reporters were let into the Utah Jazz’s locker room following their 121-96 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers on Wednesday night at Vivint Arena, it was mostly devoid of players, save a few.

As empty as that scene is, it’s the picture of a team that has now looked bad for most of the last six games — five of which have resulted in big losses — and knows it.

On Wednesday night, one of the big culprits in defeat was transition defense, as the Jazz gave up 32 points in transition while scoring just five themselves. For a squad that has long been one of the best defensive teams in the league and started this season that same way, it’s a departure from norm that has reared its ugly head a few times now.

“We have to be honest with ourselves and really be truthful with ourselves. We know what we’re doing wrong. We know what’s lacking in our defensive effort and we just have to man up about it and take it in the chest, get better and continue to fight” — Utah Jazz forward Jeff Green

“More recently, we’ve allowed other things, whether it be a missed shot, perception of a bad call, turnover, everything’s lingered, so our inability to get to the next play I think has hurt our defense,” Snyder said Wednesday night. “Not being collectively focused on something, it requires five guys playing together. Breakdowns can occur so many different ways, but invariably the common thread is probably some sort of miscommunication.”

Jeff Green pointed first to defense as the biggest reason for the team’s woes of late.

1 of 20

2 of 20

3 of 20

4 of 20

5 of 20

6 of 20

7 of 20

8 of 20

9 of 20

10 of 20

11 of 20

12 of 20

13 of 20

14 of 20

15 of 20

16 of 20

17 of 20

18 of 20

19 of 20

20 of 20

“I think that’s the start of it,” he said. “That’s the base of it, and once we get in our halfcourt defense, that’s when the communication factor kicks in. We’ll start with it tomorrow.”

Looking at the bigger picture of the last few games, Green was upfront in expressing that the team isn’t performing as well as it could or should be.

“We have to be honest with ourselves and really be truthful with ourselves,” he said. “We know what we’re doing wrong. We know what’s lacking in our defensive effort and we just have to man up about it and take it in the chest, get better and continue to fight.”

Added Mitchell: “There’s not really much Coach can say. It’s really just on us in the locker room to figure it out...we’re nice to each other, but we’ve got to be able to make sure that we pick this up. I think we all know it.”

The good news for Utah is that its schedule should ease up some after a brutal week, starting with a home game Saturday against the Memphis Grizzlies.

“The great thing about the NBA is we’ve got a couple games ahead of us that are games that we can win,” Green said. “We’ve got two days to practice, which will be great for us to get back to our roots. We’re going to go in tomorrow with a game plan to get better. We can’t get too down on ourselves. To me, it’s still early in the season.”