Jazz’s offense runs out of steam in double-digit loss to Clippers

The absence of Utah Jazz guard Keyonte George and center Jusuf Nurkic was heavily felt in Tuesday night’s game against the Los Angeles Clippers. The Jazz’s offense stagnated, particularly in the second half, as Utah lost 115-103.

Utah played well to open the game, generating good looks and earning a 29-18 lead after the first quarter. Los Angeles woke up in the second quarter, but the game was still close, with a 54-53 Jazz lead at halftime.

The Jazz certainly didn’t look pretty, but they were keeping up with a hot Clippers team that has now won nine of its last 10 games. However, things started to turn for the worse in the second half.

“The area that needs to be addressed the most is that we’re fighting for focus for 48 minutes, and there’s a difference between executing and hoping,” Jazz head coach Will Hardy said. “I felt like for two-and-a-half quarters of tonight’s game, we really executed.

“I felt like the beginning of the third quarter, we were sort of hooping. We lost the plot a little bit on both sides of the ball, and the game gets away from you because, outside of that stretch, it’s an even game against a good team.”

The ball started sticking with the lack of George and Nurkic on the floor. The Jazz were also making poor decisions, particularly on the offensive side of the ball. They were running fewer set-plays and fell more into a pickup style of basketball.

Meanwhile, the Clippers moved the ball better and got plenty of open looks from beyond the 3-point line. Los Angeles shot 6-of-11 from three en route to a double-digit lead.

“These are the best basketball players in the world, and anybody can be scored on, but there are better choices in terms of matchups and people to involve,” said Hardy. “I felt like in the beginning of the third quarter we played a lot of our offense against Kawhi Leonard and Kris Dunn. That’s just not how you want to live.”

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Once the Jazz fell behind, there was no coming back. The offense never recovered and was held to just 49 points in the second half. Tuesday’s game was the third consecutive loss for Utah.

It wasn’t all bad; a few of the Jazz’s young players showed some flashes. Ace Bailey led the Jazz in scoring with 20 points on high-volume 3-point shooting. Bailey shot 4-of-9 from three.

Cody Williams had some nice minutes as a starter with 11 points and was tasked with guarding James Harden or Leonard for most of the night.

Isaiah Collier led the Jazz’s playmaking effort with nine assists, along with 12 points.

“Our young players are really improving,” Hardy said.

“There are bright spots every night we take the floor. I thought that Ace played a good game tonight. I think Cody continues to show signs of a lot of improvement on both sides of the ball. I thought (Collier) did a good job of setting the table for his teammates tonight. So, there are always positives that we can take away watching our team play, but we are fighting for more focus.”

Tuesday was also the first night back for Lauri Markkanen after missing seven games. He looked rusty and ended with 19 points, but shot only 5-of-15 on the night.

“It was just getting my wind back, and obviously the first couple of stances (I) feel a little tired,” said Markkanen.

“I thought I was a little short on my shot, but it’s slowly getting my legs back and I started feeling better as we went. (I) had like one really good solid practice before coming back, and so (I’m) working back up, but not an excuse. It feels good to be out there and give me that rhythm again.”