The Utah Jazz lose their 7th game of the season 121-114 against the LA Clippers, tying their season series to 1-1. Although the Jazz gained Jarred Vanderbilt, who was absent in the last matchup, they lost starting PG Mike Conley to a knee strain which was suffered against Portland. Utah came back into the game after being down to the Clippers' largest lead of 17, but ultimately lost the battle.
Positives
- The Jazz did a decent job today at avoiding unnecessary fouls, and drew 24 free throws from the line compared to LA's 19.
- Lauri Markkanen had 25 PTS on 10 REB, 7 of them being offensive. The FInnish forward was Utah's main source of interior offense, and had some pretty cool dunks to go along with it.
- Kelly Olynyk had a perfect 100% from 3 (3/3), and was a great playmaker in Conley's absence. There was one play where he stumbled it to the half court line resulting in a transition Clippers bucket, but overall solid on the offense.
Negatives
- Sexton was 5/13 from the field tonight, and struggled to make anything in the paint. Under the Will Hardy system, Sexton hasn't shown much signs of playmaking potential, and the Jazz were more reliant of Beasley and THT to close this game.
- Utah committed 6 total turnovers in the fourth quarter alone, which allowed LA to get easy transition buckets down the stretch. The team continues to be one of the worst transition defensive teams in the league, and gets increasingly worse without Conley's playmaking.
- Kelly Olynyk's interior D was worrying. As the Jazz's man in the middle, he allowed frustrating buckets by opposing big man Ivica Zubac, and was weirdly doing a lot of unnecessary doubling. Hopefully this changes, as we're gonna need it later down the season.
Notable Jazz Statlines
L.Markkanen: 25 PTS/10 REB/+14
J.Clarkson: 26 PTS/4 REB/4 AST
K.Olynyk: 19 PTS/7 REB/4 AST
T.Horton-Tucker: 14 PTS/2 REB/2 AST/2 STL/2 BLK
J.Vanderbilt: 6 PTS/10 REB/5 AST/1 STL/1 BLK
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