SALT LAKE CITY — If there was a thought after the Utah Jazz beat the Memphis Grizzlies 126-112 last Saturday night to snap a three-game losing streak that all of their problems were suddenly solved, Monday’s contest against the Oklahoma City Thunder was a reminder that things are not that easy.
A familiar theme plagued Utah once again, as it struggled offensively en route to a 104-90 loss to Oklahoma City. It is the Jazz’s sixth loss in their last eight games, and it came against a Thunder team that entered Monday with a 10-12 record.
“I thought early in the game we really attacked the rim and then we got in some situations where we had some great looks and missed them. As the game progressed, it got harder. We still had some looks but our decision-making, collectively, that’s where we need to come together and help each other on the offensive end” — Utah Jazz coach Quin Snyder
For the night, Utah shot just 40% from the field and didn’t reach the 25-point mark in any quarter.
The struggles were spread across most of the team, as Donovan Mitchell missed his first five three-pointers until hitting one early in the fourth quarter when the Jazz trailed by 21 points (then he missed his last two). The normally reliable Royce O’Neale went 0-for-3 from distance, and the bench players were just a combined 1-of-7 from beyond the arc. Bojan Bogdanovic was a solid 3-of-7 on 3-point tries, but he struggled from inside the line, going just 1-of-10.
Rudy Gobert was the only efficient Jazzman offensively, as he finished an excellent 9-of-10 from the field and scored 19 points. Mitchell led the home team with 26, but took 25 shots. Oklahoma City backup guard Dennis Schroder, who embraced Utah coach Quin Snyder on the sideline when he entered the game for the first time (the two spent a season together with the Atlanta Hawks), led all scorers with 27.
“They made it hard on us defensively,” Snyder said. “I think they got into us and that requires us to be even more connected and that’s something we’re aware of and need to work harder and move further.”
Utah got off to a good enough start, as it led 24-19 with 2:09 remaining in the first quarter. But as has happened numerous times this season, the Jazz offense stalled as the second unit came in (such has been especially challenging over the past three games as Snyder has had to tweak rotations due to the absence of Mike Conley because of knee soreness).
With Mitchell playing alongside Emmanuel Mudiay, Georges Niang, Jeff Green and Ed Davis, the Jazz surrendered that lead and trailed 25-24 at the end of the first quarter.
Snyder replaced Mudiay with Joe Ingles to start the second quarter, but the offense didn’t get better. Ingles, who for the third straight game without Conley had great success early in pick-and-roll with Gobert, didn’t have the same result with Davis rolling, and Utah trailed 33-26 less than two minutes into the second.
The Jazz hung around for the rest of the quarter and got to within two points inside of a minute, but mismanaged the clock and gave up a bucket as Oklahoma City went into halftime ahead 51-47.
Things remained about the same for the first half of the third quarter, but then the dam broke open inside of six minutes to play. Up 66-61 at the 5:44 mark, the Thunder went on a 9-0 run over the next 2:05 to stretch the lead to 14. They led by 17, 85-68, at the end of the frame and Utah wasn’t up for a comeback.
“Things can get stagnant, and sometimes pressure creates that,” Snyder said. “I thought early in the game we really attacked the rim and then we got in some situations where we had some great looks and missed them. As the game progressed, it got harder. We still had some looks but our decision-making, collectively, that’s where we need to come together and help each other on the offensive end.”
Mitchell added, “They just can’t take us out of our offense. We can’t complain about calls. We’ve just got move on to the next play. They did a better job of that than we did.”
Up next for the Jazz is a Wednesday road game against the Minnesota Timberwolves.