Err Canada: Flat Start Dooms Jazz in Toronto

The Jazz’s flight out of Canada left nearly two hours late on Sunday night due to icy conditions at Toronto’s Pearson Airport. And yet that’s nothing compared to the trouble the Jazz had getting off the ground inside Scotiabank arena a few hours earlier.

The Jazz opened their game against the Raptors with as bad a first half as they have played in the Quin Snyder era. Plagued by their own low energy, a gimmicky defense and struggling stars, the visitors found themselves dwon by 40 at the break, en route to a 110-130 loss north of the border. 

The listless Jazz were off kilter on both ends of the court to open the game. Their two offensive stars, Donovan Mitchell and Bojan Bogdanovic, both struggled early, combining to make just five of their 20 first-half shots (25%) in the first half. Bogdanovic in particular seemed bothered by the physical defense of Norm Powell and other Raptors, while all of Mitchell’s first seven shots were shots taken off the dribble away from the rim.

For Toronto’s part, they came ready to play. The much-improved Pascale Siakam had 19 of his game-high 35 points in the first quarter. He was one of eight Raptors to reach double figures, as Toronto racked up their second-highest assist total of the season. So credit Nick Nurse’s squad: they were ready and they played well.

But Utah certainly helped them out, both with a lackluster defensive effort and with a curious choice of defensive schemes. In order to mitigate the challenge of having Rudy Gobert chase Toronto’s stretch center Marc Gasol around the perimeter, the Jazz got clever with their defensive approach — maybe a little too clever. Early on, they had Gobert helping way off of Gasol and switching certain pick-and-roll actions involving the big man, and then would flash extra help toward the Spanish center. The problem is that Toronto has a number of good ball movers and high-IQ players, starting with Gasol himself. So after the Raptors spent a few minutes figuring out what Utah was doing, they were able to simply pick apart the defense with relatively easy passes.

The Jazz did fight back after the half, with a protracted third-quarter run that made things feel briefly interesting. They outscored Toronto by 24 (42-18) in the first nine and a half minutes after the break, cutting the Toronto lead to just 16. It was part of a 49-point third quarter for Utah, a franchise record for any quarter. Mike Conley led the way for Utah with 13 in the period on perfect 5-of-5 shooting, and Mitchell added nine points and four assists.

But it was too little and too late for Utah. Toronto responded by converting 3-point plays on each of their next four possessions, and the lead ballooned back to 23.

The Jazz briefly got the deficit as low as 15 in the fourth quarter, at 94-109. Then the Raptors re-inserted Siakam, Gasol and Fred VanVleet (11 assists) back into the game, and they reeled off a 9-2 run to put the game away. Utah called timeout and came back with a “white flag” lineup that made it clear they had conceded the game.

The Jazz fell to 12-8 with the loss, having dropped three of their last four.

Stat of the Game

19: Siakam’s first quarter made the Jazz defenders look ornamental. Jeff Green predictably struggled to stay in front of the budding star, but even defensive standout Royce O’Neale couldn’t do much to slow down Siakam.

21: The Raptors had as many assists in the first half as Utah had for the entire game. The Jazz’s decision to show Gasol an extra defender proved costly, and Toronto was also able to get out in transition with numbers after Utah’s 18 turnovers.

85.9%: Utah’s third-quarter performance was unreal, especially in contrast to their first half. The record-breaking 49-point outburst came on 85.9% true shooting as a team, and their Net Rating for the period was a staggering +76. It’s a shame that such a convincing display of offensive ability was wasted on a symbolic run in a game they had already lost for all intents and purposes.

0: Minutes played by Kyle Lowry. That’s right, Toronto did this Utah while still playing without their All-Star guard, who has now missed 11 straight games.

Line of the Game

Siakam ended the night with 35 points, five assists, five rebounds, two steals and a +18 for the game. VanVleet tallied 21 points on just 10 shots, and also distributed 11 helpers while grabbing five boards.

Decisive Moment

The entire first half was essentially one big run, so it’s hard to single out one deciding push by the home team. The 23-2 run in the first quarter blew the game open initially, but the 29-6 surge that spanned most of the second quarter was the one that really put the game on ice.

Utah shot 1-for-18 over that stretch, with five turnovers.

Ball game.

Highlight of the Game

As the Jazz were cutting into the Toronto lead after halftime, Mitchell had this ridiculous, no-look, wrap-around pass to Conley. This might be one of the best assists of the year for the Jazz.

Social

Let’s check in with the voice of reason for some perspective on tonight’s rough showing.

The jazz are 12-8 playing by far the most difficult portion of the schedule and I’ve said repeatedly the jazz could go 1-4 on this trip because it’s one of the most difficult any nba team will play this season. So my opinion is why is everyone surprised it’s happening? https://t.co/KlN2wKV4Ee

— Tony Jones (@Tjonesonthenba) December 2, 2019

Tony is right, the sky isn’t falling. Good (and even great) teams have bad nights. The Jazz got thoroughly dominated in every stage of the game on Sunday, but they are still three games ahead of where they were at the 20-game mark last season, and they are about to put the ugliest road trip of the year behind them.

Notes

It was an off night overall, but three Jazz players who have been struggling used this game to to get on track.

• Conley came into this game having made just nine of his last 40 shots (22.5%) over the past four games, but netted an efficient 20 in Canada.
• Jeff Green was posting career lows for scoring and shooting and had reached double figures in just six of 19 games, but posted a season-high 19 tonight.
• And Dante Exum, who has seen spotty minutes since returning from knee rehab, scored as many points in his 11 minutes on Sunday (9) as he had in his 41 previous minutes this season.

Other notes:

• Serge Ibaka played well in his return after missing 10 games, scoring 13 points.
• This was the first game ever where Conley and Gasol faced off as opponents after spending 11 years together in Memphis. Score the first round for Big Spain.

Up Next

The Jazz’s late arrival in Philadelphia complicates an already tough back-to-back against the 14-6 Sixers. It will be the Jazz fifth game in eight nights (and their ninth in 15). After that, they’ll return home for more than a week, the first time that has happened so far this season.