Kawhi’s Raptors Run Away From Jazz, and Joe’s Woes Continue

The Jazz couldn’t do much to stop Kawhi on New Year’s Day. (Ron Turenne via espn.com)

The Utah Jazz faced the best team in the league (so far) on Tuesday night in Toronto and lost a game that was not as close as the final score indicated. In a night of a career highs for both teams, the Raptors pulled away behind Kawhi Leonard’s massive third quarter, and then held on for a 122-116 win.

Leonard, one of three players to post a career high in points, was untouchable–literally, since he was sent to the line 17 times–and on fire. He scored 45 points, and did so without a three pointer. That’s impressive, especially for a wing player. Raptor big man Pascal Siakam and Jazz reserve Jae Crowder also posted career-best scoring nights, with 28 and 30, respectively.

Joe Ingles, on the other hand, had a season low two points. He went 0-for-5 from 3-point land and didn’t impact the offense the way he usually does. He was able to bother Leonard for stretches with great defense, but eventually the superstar broke through, so ultimately there wasn’t really any stopping Kawhi, so Ingles’ impact wasn’t felt.

Despite the final score, the Jazz lost control as soon as the second half started. Toronto made three straight threes in a short span while Utah missed threes on the opposite end: a contested look by Ingles, a Donovan Mitchell pull-up, and a rushed Derrick Favors corner three. None of which are really the ideal shots. In fact, if it wasn’t for Jae Crowder’s five made threes and 29 trips to the foul line, the Jazz could have easily lost by more after the Raptors broke loose with 44 in the third quarter.

The Jazz haven’t been a great shooting team all year and the off nights are the ones that feel the most miserable. They are also far too common, especially lately. The Jazz have a hard time winning games when both Mitchell and Ricky Rubio shoot poorly, and that was the case in Toronto. What’s more rare is a poor  shooting night from Ingles.

Or is it?

Ghosts of Christmas Past

Ingles is now in the midst of a shooting slump. He has now made just 18 of his last 59 attempts from deep over the past 12 games, for a 30.5 percent mark. Obviously this is well below his career 40% shooting or season 37%, which is dragged down by his slump.  

At first glance, it seemed that this was a very uncharacteristic slump for Joe and it called for a comparison of past seasons past to find similar slumps. That research led to a surprising finding.

In a same 12-game span last season, games 30-41 (mid December through early January), Joe recorded 18 threes of 57 attempts, for 31% shooting. Not only was it identical in makes, but it was nearly identical in attempts and percentage.

In the 2016-2017 season, Joe went 15-of-42 through the same 12-game span, though that was a much better mark at 35%, it was still a slump. It appears that Ingles struggles around the end of December and beginning of January. It’s hard to diagnose that precisely, but the slumps are there in three consecutive seasons.

In his Basketball Reference shooting splits, Ingles appears to slump in January overall. His monthly mark is nearing or over 40 percent in every month except January with a considerably lower mark at 37 percent.

What that also means is that maybe we can expect Joe to start getting hot. His post All-Star 3-point number on his career is 42%. I’m not sure what the correlation is to January and poor shooting for Joe, but the Jazz, currently 8th-worst in overall 3-point percentage, could certainly use the lift should Ingles return to form.