SALT LAKE CITY — At this point in their season, it’s abundantly clear that having a rest or player health advantage doesn’t do a lot for the Utah Jazz, as they’ve lost a bunch of games when it appeared as though they should be the more fresh squad.
Nevertheless, on Monday night at Vivint Arena there was the thought that the Jazz could beat a good Toronto Raptors team that was playing the fifth of a five-game road trip, which included a close game on Sunday night against the Sacramento Kings. To boot, the Raptors were without Marc Gasol and Fred Van Vleet, and then Norman Powell exited early in the first quarter with a sprained ankle.
But once again, Utah wasn’t good enough and ultimately lost 101-92 to snap a five-game win streak. And once again, the loss comes against a playoff team, as the Jazz have shown the ability to consistently beat lottery-bound squads but not ones destined for the postseason.
This time, Utah didn’t make the necessary plays down the stretch to get the victory in a close game, while Toronto did. The Jazz led 87-85 with 5:48 to play after a Rudy Gobert dunk (his only field goal of the game), but scored just five more points the rest of the contest.
Despite the offensive drought down the stretch, Utah still trailed by just three at 95-92 with exactly 1:30 to go after two Gobert free throws. After a failed Toronto possession, the Raptors played excellent defense in stifling a Gobert attempt at the rim, and Pascal Siakam made two free throws to extend the lead to five with 56 seconds left.
Following a wild next 26 seconds, the Jazz still had a faint bit of life after forcing a turnover, but Jordan Clarkson hoisted up a tough 3-pointer that missed, and Utah had to play the foul game from there.
Failing to convert on opportunities to cut the lead at critical moments was a theme in the second half for the Jazz. For instance, a Donovan Mitchell 3-pointer cut the deficit to four at 63-59 in the third quarter and Utah got a steal soon after, but Bojan Bogdanovic couldn’t convert a layup to cut it to two and the Raptors made a layup on their end to stretch the edge to six.
A short time later after a Royce O’Neale 3 trimmed the deficit to three at 65-62, Mike Conley got a steal but O’Neale missed an open 3 that would have tied things up. Then after Toronto missed a shot, Bogdanovic missed an easy try at the rim and Raptors guard Kyle Lowry made a 3 to put the lead at six again.
Then down six as the third quarter wound to a close, the Jazz had numerous chances to cut the deficit to three but couldn’t do it.
“There’s a lot of little things, whether it’s making an open shot when we had one ... those possessions are hard for us because you’re defending against numbers the other way, so we put pressure on our defense when we don’t convert,” Utah head coach Quin Snyder said.
Finally Utah broke through with a strong start in the fourth quarter and took the lead on Gobert’s dunk, but then couldn’t close.
For the night, Gobert scored just six points, Bogdanovic had just five and Mitchell added just 11. The Jazz’s bench was excellent, but the starting group as a whole struggled mightily. Mitchell was a -30, Bogdanovic was a -23, Gobert was a -22 and O’Neale a -21 (playing a bunch with reserves, Conley was a +1).
“We had a number of looks at the rim that we weren’t able to convert on, but guys are going to have off nights. We didn’t have enough though.” — Utah coach Quin Snyder
With the loss, Utah dropped to 41-23 on the season, and combined with the Denver Nuggets’ win over the mighty Milwaukee Bucks on Monday night, are now two games behind the Nuggets for third place in the Western Conference standings.
The Jazz will next play the Oklahoma City Thunder on the road Wednesday night. They lead the Thunder by just one game in the standings.