SALT LAKE CITY — It would be too easy to blame the Utah Jazz’s 113-104 loss to the San Antonio Spurs Friday night at Vivint Arena on their gold “Statement” jerseys.
Yes, it’s true that after the Jazz went just 1-6 to start the season while wearing those threads, they hadn’t worn them since a Dec. 2 loss to the Philadelphia 76ers before Friday and had gone 24-9 in that span.
“There was just no physicality. (The Spurs) just played like they didn’t have an All-Star break, like they were ready to go, and we didn’t come ready to play from the jump.” — Jazz guard Donovan Mitchell
Nevertheless, the Jazz played Friday wearing the Statement jerseys like they did in most of those previous seven games en route to getting blown out in their first outing back from the All-Star break in a contest that wasn’t as close as the final score indicated.
“We got what we earned tonight,” Utah head coach Quin Snyder said afterward. “Give San Antonio credit. They came out and played with force. They were not just the more aggressive team, but the more aggressive team by a long way in the first half and even throughout the course of the game.”
Really, the Jazz were subpar on both ends of the floor, but especially on defense. The Spurs can be a challenging matchup for a Jazz team that focuses on stopping layups and 3-pointers, as San Antonio has a bevy of excellent midrange shooters.
The Spurs made their fair share of midrange jumpers Friday to hurt Utah, especially early, but in truth, they were effective from just about everywhere as the Jazz really didn’t put up a whole lot of resistance. San Antonio made 10 of its 20 3-point attempts, and Utah forced just seven turnovers.
“There was just no physicality,” Jazz guard Donovan Mitchell said. “(The Spurs) just played like they didn’t have an All-Star break, like they were ready to go, and we didn’t come ready to play from the jump.”
As much trouble as Utah had defensively, it struggled to make shots as well, even when it generated good ones. The Jazz finished with a solid 25 assists on 35 made baskets, but missed a bunch of wide open 3-pointers (12 of 33 on the night from distance in all) and tries at the rim.
“On top of (defensive struggles), not making shots, then it feels like a huge boulder is just falling on top of you,” Mitchell said.
In the same thought, however, he reverted back to the defensive issues.
“There are games where we’ve won off playing bad defense and good offense and we can’t rely on that come this half of the season and playoffs,” he said. “When the offense is struggling, we’ve got to pick it up to a higher level and we just, we weren’t there at all. We’ve just got to pick it up.”
Utah’s troubles were apparent early, as it went just 9 of 25 in the first quarter, including just 1 of 8 from behind the 3-point line, and San Antonio had more rebounds, assists, steals and blocks and fewer turnovers on its way to taking a 27-21 lead.
The Spurs’ lead grew to 14 at 44-30 just over three minutes into the second quarter before the Jazz stormed back and trailed by just four at 46-42 a short 3:08 later. But a minute later after the teams traded baskets, San Antonio started an even more impressive three-minute stretch of its own, as it went on a 17-0 run to put the lead at 21 points, 65-44.
Royce O’Neale finally stopped the bleeding with a bucket at the buzzer heading into halftime, but the damage was done. Utah then trailed by as many as 25 points in the third quarter before cutting the deficit to 12 with 10 minutes to go, but couldn’t get closer than that.
Spurs guard Dejounte Murray finished with a game-high 23 points. Former University of Utah star Jakob Poeltl didn’t score but had seven rebounds, four blocks, two steals and two assists in 13 minutes off the bench. Former Jazzman Trey Lyles scored seven points with six rebounds, an assist and a steal.
Rudy Gobert led the Jazz with 18 points, 14 rebounds, two assists and a block.
Utah will have a quick turnaround against a wildly different team from the Spurs, as it’ll play the 3-pointer happy Houston Rockets on Saturday night at Vivint Arena.