Shooting Woes, Turnovers Hasten the End of Utah’s Season in Game 5

April 24th, 2019 | by Steve Godfrey

O’Neale led the Jazz on Wednesday, but Houston took Game 5 and closed out the series (Bill Baptist via utahjazz.com)

With heart and grit, the Jazz executed another solid defensive performance, but were doomed yet again by poor shooting. The Jazz kept Game 5 close made it tense down the stretch in Houston, but the Rockets ultimately completed the gentleman’s sweep with a 100-93 win Wednesday to win the first round series 4-1. 

The Jazz shot 23% from deep, 9-for-28, culminating with a Ricky Rubio air ball from the corner that would’ve given the Jazz a lead with 1:09 to play. Rubio played with pace and passion, yet it will be the flaw in his game that extinguished any hope remaining. 

After a strong fourth quarter in Monday night’s Game 4, Donovan Mitchell had one of the worst games of his career, gathering a stat line of 12 points and one assist against 4-for-22 shooting, including 0-of-9 from deep, and five turnovers. Turnovers hurt the Jazz late, as Utah squandered chances to stay close or take the lead with back-to-back turnovers in the final minutes. Eric Gordon and PJ Tucker stripped balls away from Mitchell and Rudy Gobert rolling to the hoop.

To win playoff games, on the road and on the brink of elimination, you can’t shoot yourself in the foot. As good as Houston is, it can be argued that the Game 3 and 5 losses were on the Jazz’s poor shooting, lack of execution down the stretch, and turnovers. The Jazz kept it interesting, however, until caving in the final minutes. 

Run down and a recap

The game kicked off with a quick 8-0 lead for Houston as all Houston starters scored a bucket, except for James Harden. Joe Ingles stopped a fast break and then nailed a three on the other end to get the Jazz on board, but then it was sloppy for both parties. By the end of one, the score was tied at 20 apiece, but the stat line really looked like this: 13 made field goals, 13 turnovers, and 12 fouls called between the two teams in the first 12 minutes. 

Despite holding Harden scoreless in that first quarter, the Jazz couldn’t do it again in the second as Harden kept shooting and finally started knocking them down. He got his first points at the nine minute mark, but then missed a fairly wide open dunk as Gobert came to challenge. Gobert turned that miss into a dunk of his own on the other end, while dominating for a three minute stretch. The Rockets went small and Gobert often found himself guarded by Harden and Eric Gordon down low. On Monday night, the big fella wasn’t able to capitalize on those mismatches, but on a run in the second quarter he had eight points, three rebounds, and a block.

The defense was humming and the Jazz were scoring just enough to stay even with Houston, until the last two minutes of the half as Eric Gordon banked in a three off the top of the arc with 30 seconds left and then James Harden took the ball to the cup with three ticks left on the clock. Houston went into the half with the lead, but also with energy and momentum. The crowd was back in the game and the Jazz looked deflated. 

For the next two minutes of the third quarter, that look of deflation lingered. Houston jumped out on a 7-0 run, but if one went backwards it was a 21-3 run in Houston’s favor. Quickly, Quin Snyder took Mitchell out and put Royce O’Neale on the floor who breathed life back into the Jazz offense. By the middle of the third quarter, he was the only Jazz player in double-figures, with 16 points on 7-of-10 shooting. The rest of the Jazz up to that point was shooting just 26%. As TNT’s Reggie Miller noted, “Where would the Jazz be without Royce O’Neale?”

Before the 4th started, Mitchell had nine points on 3-for-16 shooting, still 0-for-5 from deep. He had four turnovers and one assist, putting him at -15 on the court which was the worst margin for a Jazz player at that point. From about the four minute mark in the first quarter to 2:24 of the third, Mitchell didn’t make a field goal. Houston head coach Mike D’Antoni was asked what Houston needed to do to prevent Mitchell from having a quarter like Monday night (when he scored 13 in three minutes) and he simply said “Eric (Gordon) has to be the man.”

Gordon did his job on Mitchell, but other Jazz players were able to put the ball in the hoop. An alley-oop from Ingles (finished with 11 points and nine assists) to Favors and then a Rubio steal and quick outlet for an Ingles lay in narrowed the Houston lead to two, 75-73. Surprisingly, Harden shots his first FT of the game at the 10:27 mark and missed both attempts. Rubio then raced down the court and put up another off-balance floater to tie the game. Miller, at that point, exclaimed, “There is no quit. Ain’t no quit in the Utah Jazz. It’s amazing how they play.”

Yet, as the clock ticked down the Jazz found themselves on the wrong side of the score as Chris Paul took over. For all of Harden’s brilliance, it was CP3 who came up clutch and played the leader down the stretch for Houston. To finish, the Jazz had the horrible airball, turnover, turnover sequence as Houston made free throws to seal the game and wait for (likely) Golden State and the second-round to tip off.

Numbers of Note

  • O’Neale led the Jazz in scoring with 18 points on an efficient 8-13 shooting performance. 
  • Derrick Favors played 18 minutes, yet was a team-high +8 on the court. He didn’t see playing time in the 4th quarter. 
  • The Jazz forced Houston into 17 turnovers that turned into 22 Jazz points. 
  • Utah had 13 more shot attempts than Houston, but shot 37% compared to Houston’s 44%. 
  • After losing in five games to Houston last spring, the Jazz stressed continuity over change and lost to Houston in five games in the playoffs this spring.

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