Struggling Jazz Fall Again to a Red Hot Harden

April 18th, 2019 | by Steve Godfrey

O’Neale tied a playoff career-high 17 points, but the Jazz couldn’t stop Harden’s Rockets. (Bill Baptist via ESPN.com)

In the 4th quarter of game one, the Rockets outscored the Jazz 39-19. Picking up right on cue, that same score, 39-19, was on the board after the first quarter of game two, and the Houston maintained their lead throughout as the Jazz fell to 0-2 in this first-round series after a 118-98 loss.

Utah finished 2nd in the regular season with their defensive rating, giving up 105.2 points per 100 possessions. Wednesday night, the Jazz’s defensive rating ballooned to 117.6, largely in part to James Harden. The Beard, more on him below, grabbed an easy 32-13-10 triple-double while the Rockets shot 17-for-42 from deep compared to Utah’s 8-of-38 showing.  Ricky Rubio and Royce O’Neale showed the most heart and energy on the Utah side, each finishing with 17 points, while Rubio chipped in nine assists, too. 

With little going right on the Jazz’s end, two plot points stand out from Wednesday night: Harden and Donovan Mitchell are the stars of the series, but only one is acting like it.

The James Harden Show

As has been analyzed and overanalyzed, the Utah Jazz team defense on The Beard has been questionable, to say the least. Ricky Rubio said the Jazz would stick to their gameplan while making adjustments to execute it better. That didn’t necessarily happen in the first half of Wednesday’s contest. 

In the first quarter, James Harden and the Rockets had a sequence that went like this: 

  • Harden step-back three with Rubio straight up on him: 15-6.
  • Rubio on hip, Harden passes to P.J. Tucker, Tucker hits corner three: 18-9.
  • Joe Ingles on Harden’s hip, Harden drives and kicks to Danuel House whose three is good: 21-9.
  • Crowding Harden, Donovan Mitchell fouls him on a three. All three FTs are good: 24-9.
  • Rubio more straight up D, Harden hits step-back three anyway: 27-9.
  • Harden offensive rebound, step-back floater and fouled; three-point play: 30-11.
  • O’Neale takes a turn on Harden, who hits another step-back three: 33-13.

By halftime, the score was 70-44. The Jazz starters had 31 points, shooting 13-35,  1-for-12 from deep, and handing out just nine total assists. Harden, himself, had 25 points by going 8-15 from the field, including 5-9 from deep, while chipping in seven assists. If you tally it up, four of his assists went for threes while the other three were for wide open shots at the rim.

He is the best offensive player in the NBA, with little argument proving otherwise. In this series, the Jazz have found little success in slowing him down. The hope was to make him uncomfortable, take away his strong side, force him to be a passer, get him off the free throw line, but the hope now has to be that he gets into his own head and just falls apart. 

After the game, Rubio commented on Harden and the defensive gameplan. He said,

He’s one of the best scorers of all time and we’re going to keep trying to find ways to make his scoring hard. He’s going to make shots regardless of what we do. It’s about us believing in what we do. And I think we haven’t bought in 100%. If you’re not 100%, you’ve already lost the battle. We just really have to be the team that we are. We are a pretty good team with great guys, but it’s about ‘man up and play defense.’

In game one, Harden needed 26 shot attempts for 29 points and only had three trips to the line. He also didn’t go nuclear from deep, went 4-10, yet the Jazz were picked apart by his playmaking and lost by 32. Wednesday, it was 24 shot attempts for 32 points, including 6-13 from deep, but he got a triple-double and was a team-high +24 from the floor in another big win. 

He may or may not win another regular season MVP award in the coming months, but he is certainly making a case for All-World right now. Chris Webber, during the TNT telecast, said the Jazz had shown their hand with this defensive strategy, basically telling James Harden “We can’t guard you and we don’t know how to guard you so we are going to try some gimmicky stuff.” By sending that message, Harden’s confidence is through the roof and he knows he has the Jazz on their heels and in his pocket.

At the rate he is going, what are the Jazz supposed to do? And at the rate this series is going, what are his next opponents supposed to do? 

Where is Donovan Mitchell? 

One thing that would be nice is to have a star that could take Harden punch-for-punch and provide some breathing room for the Jazz offense to operate. A star that could play-make and set up for teammates while knocking down crucial jumpers to help keep pace with the opposing team. 

I don’t know, maybe a star like Donovan Mitchell? 

After the game, Mitchell acknowledged his struggles. Simply, he said, “I didn’t show up. Simply put, that can’t happen.” 

He is saying all the right things before and after games, but his performance on the court wasn’t paralleled. 

With the Jazz down 20 at the end of the first quarter, Mitchell’s stat line was four points, three turnovers, and two fouls. If you want to set the tone and be aggressive, this wasn’t the way to do so.

His two fouls were careless and lazy, which is a way one could describe his penetration to the hoop or his engagement on offense. Throughout the rest of the game, he looked lost in the moment and overwhelmed by Houston’s defensive focus. Eric Gordon continued to be outstanding as the primary defender on DM45, hounding him each time he got the ball on the perimeter and contesting each jumper. If Mitchell were to get in the lane, a howling throng awaited him. 

Mitchell finished the game 5-for-19 from the field, including an abysmal 1-of-8 from deep. He had 11 points, six assists, five fouls, and four turnovers. 

Mitchell is a rising star, but that would be a questionable declaration if based upon playoff series against the Rockets. Last spring one could argue he was worn out from the grueling, and magnificent, first-round OKC series and the added emphasis to carry the team when Rubio went down with his hamstring injury. This time around, Rubio was healthy and in the lineup. This time around, the Rockets were the first-round foe so he should, in theory, be fresh. This time around, Mitchell entered the playoffs with positive momentum and playoff experience under his belt. 

There weren’t high expectations placed on Mitchell’s shoulders, but there were expectations. He himself even set them, giving off the “why not us” mentality in the first media session prior to the series as to making noise in the playoffs and competing for championships. He cited Dwayne Wade who won it all his third year in the league, prompting Mitchell to wonder why that couldn’t be him or his team.

As the offensive face of the team, a shooter and a scorer who can get hot and get a bucket from anywhere, Utah needed that guy in a series like this. Perhaps back home he can find his confidence and his rhythm to bring all that to fruition.

Mitchell has another chunk of days to look at film and reassess his standing in this series before taking the court in Salt Lake for game three on Saturday night, 8:30 PM MT. If there is any silver lining, former Jazz forward DeMarre Carroll is here to pump you up. 

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