JazzAvenues
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I just got home from the game. I don’t recall being more excited about sitting down to do the quotes. I am anticipating arrogance, agony, frustration, excuses, rationalizations, and disbelief!
Jazzavenues
https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/77xyao/post_game_thread_the_utah_jazz_21_defeat_the/
https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/77xlqw/the_utah_jazz_have_held_the_oklahoma_city_thunder/
https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/77xzn3/the_jazz_held_westbrook_to_6_points_on_211/
https://www.reddit.com/r/Thunder/comments/77xxxa/post_game_thread_oklahoma_city_thunder_utah_jazz/
https://www.reddit.com/r/Thunder/comments/77wz84/game_thread_oklahoma_city_thunder_utah_jazz_oct/
https://www.facebook.com/OKCThunder/
https://www.welcometoloudcity.com/2...r-vs-jazz-preview-2017-westbrook-gobert-adams
https://forums.realgm.com/boards/viewtopic.php?f=334&t=1626803
https://forums.realgm.com/boards/viewtopic.php?f=334&t=1626269
http://www.thunderfans.com/vforum/s...1-2017-Thunder-Jazz-(regular-season-02-of-82)
Getting ready for a blow out
In my opinion, George will be key to this game. Gobert-Adams will practically negate each other. George will be matched up with Ingles most likely and he should be able to take advantage of that matchup. Also, with Rubio's non-shooting, I think we will be able to contain their scorers quite well.
Hood is out because he’s made of glass. The helps our chances.
Good road test for this game. We should not have any issues with them but we are still working on the chemistry thing.. I really want to see us become confident and finish teams out on the road this year and not struggle like we have the last couple years.
I see us winning 110-97.
Utah's defense will provide a challenge. I don't think they can stop all three of our guys, I expect Abrines and Adams to have nice games. Hopefully Pat can get 10mins and stretch the defense he wasn't afraid to shoot.
Honestly, I think Adams looks so poised and and in command of his abilities that I think he will still look good if not great against top tier opposition in Gobert.
I am honestly more interested in how the Thunder is going to deal with Favors. Donovan probably will play Grant on him a lot, along Melo and 2Pat, but he should try Huestis because 240 vs 210 lbs.
1/16 since middle of 1st
Excited to see more of patterson, don't see how Utah can keep up with okc tonight, especially with hood out. Hopefully abrines continues to get extended run, as Utah has limited weapons on the wing.
Ingles is a lot better than he's given credit for.
Can we not leave Ingles wide open? I swear we do it every time we play them. He's one of the most accurate shooters in the league, probably shouldn't have PG or Roberson ignoring him...
Feels like everything we set up is a three or post up. Not a lot of catching the ball moving towards the basket.
Really visible differences in the quality of coaching in this one.
I’m getting very sick of carmelo
Im thinking this is gonna be an easy win. They wont be able to stop us and dont have enough firepower themselves. Thunderup!
Utah are very underrated. Alot of people think they are out of the top 8 now Hayward is gone.
Utah are a great defensive team. Defense will always give you a chance to win.
Utah could dominate our bench on the boards if we are not careful. Billy better not get too fancy with dem lineups!
Utah is like the opposite of us, they're 13 deep when healthy.
PG steal, PG with the bucket. Another steal, Melo bucket. I like this. A lot.
This is going to be a tough game, I think. I could see Utah's size giving us some problems.
Adams has been our best player. Since preseason.
Russ has driven twice without success then left us 4v5 on defence.
It's only a 7 point game, but damn 6 for 22 is absolutely not acceptable.. So many contested shots, stupid 3's.. Jazz getting in our paint so easily, that and the 3's are why they are up 7. Lets go. Get hot pls
SHARE. THE. BALL.
One thing I dont get. Melo and PG, you drive to the basket and 2-3 Jazz players gathers around you, why don't you kick the ball out???
This was not how I was expecting his game to go down. My god. We have to pull this together.
When I finally found a stream and got the game going, we were up 12-11. We've been outscored 20-4 since. I'm to blame.
The Jazz are playing lockdown defense and the Thunder are doing nothing but jacking up contested jumpers. Not the refs fault.
We are on track to score 50 tonight. We are unstoppable.
Vote to forfeit
20 minutes into the game and we still haven't hit the 20 point mark.
9 turnovers 8 field goals
This has to be the worst offensive stretch of basketball in Thunder history.
Jesus Christ. Try something other than a jumper maybe? No?
The jazz are ****ing garbage but the refs have made us passive on the defensive end. Every touch is called while me get mugged
24% from the field. Give me a break.
Why can’t we move the ball like Utah?
You can go under the screen against Rubio...don't do it against Joe Johnson.
Does George sometimes make a shot? I swear everyone who puts on a thunder uniform has their shooting percentage drop by 10%.
This is unbelievably horrible. Starting to just laugh now.
I'm shocked we can even make dunks
Gobert has been doing moving screens since the game started
I'm no expert, but I think we're playing like ****.
We're playing sloppy but Jesus Christ we should have at least 10 points on uncalled fouls alone. We've yet to get a call at the rim and they're clobbering us every time we get down there
Did all our guys just like stay out all night partying last night wtf is going on???
**** Rudy and his moving screens
Since when does Rubio shoot 3s?
Utah is always one of the best coached teams in the league
Idk if Quinn Snyder could work well with our roster (too many egos to buy in, probably) but I respect his teams
Utah also added Epe Udoh, who's defense has been lights out these first three games.
We're supposed to be a 2nd tier contender and our only hope against Utah is that they don't have their legs in the second half...
Maybe this is what we need. Quit making big three promo videos and learn how to run an offense.
Felton and Westbrook together. Our coach is a moron.
If somehow okc can cut lead to single digits by half, it will feel like a moral victory. I hate moral victories
Melo doesn’t need to shoot 14 shots in a half. Ever.
Ingles is killing us. That's ****ing sad.
Keep ingles on the bench please. We can't guard him. So sad
Adams gotta go. I'm sick of his no playing ***. Most over paid player in the NBA.
34 pts at half won't cut it in the west. I'm not too worried, but it's definitely not something you want to see with a team that has 3 all stars and reigning mvp.
The Utah Jazz have held the Oklahoma City Thunder to 34 points in the first half.* It's hard to imagine this lasting through the whole game, but so far the Thunder are settling for jumpers against this Jazz defense, and the shots are not going down.
Pretty sure 15 of those points came in the last 3.5 minutes. Unreal.
Carmelo Anthony: 5-14 shooting Paul George: 4-10 shooting Russell Westbrook: 1-7 shooting The big question, I think, is how are the Jazz going to respond when (at least) one of these guys goes off in the second half?
Bottom of Form
No way we will play that bad in the 2nd half, it doesn't seem possible.
Atleast we get a male polestripper act for the halftimeshow.
Wtf is with this homoerotic male pole dancing in Utah of all places? (halftime cirque show)
• Believe me, I'm as confused as you are.
Defense keeps OKC close to this game. But the jazz really is a scary team defensively. TIL they have tabo which was a shutdown wing defender. Ricky Rubio channeling his inner steph curry.
Love to have some back and forth iso match up between iso joe and melo
I know that Jazz is a good defensive team, but that's not why we're shooting like 5%
Ingles and George having a 3PT shooting contest haha
So wait, Ingles walks into Adams and Adams get a technical?
Westbrook is getting really frustrated.
49 pts in 3 qtrs is just unacceptable. Starting to look like the suns out there.
This game is killing me I might smash my tv soon lol
Ricky Bleeping Rubio has hit two or three mid-range jumpers and two threes.
This guy isn't supposed to be able to shoot.
**** these refs, no calls for us but our player breathes and it’s a foul...
TIL I hate Ingles. He's an *******. And really good.
It wouldn't be so bad if they were calling the game evenly but they're whistling us for any little contact
The fact Russ is probably going to miss a triple double because he didn't get 10 points has me astonished
s there a reason we keep trying to get right under the basket with half their team swarming us?
rubio is looking for that pass to Gobert EVERY. TIME. can we at least stop that?
Gobert is man of the match. He's finished most everything he's received in the post, and he's completely shut us out of the paint.
steve is not even in the same league as Gobert. getting showed up right now.
That's, like, our 23rd foul in the last 6 possessions.
It's not a trap game. Utah is a solid team playing at home with a system that uses their talent perfectly. We have no offensive system to fall back on when shots don't fall. Also, Utah is perfectly created to take away Russ's slashing.
Zero movement on offense. Iso and 2 man games never will win a championship. Didn't work with Westbrook durant and harden. Didn't work with Westbrook and durant. Wont work with Westbrook melo and pg. Cant believe this team hasnt figured out what the great teams like the spurs and warriors do to win rings.
Didn't even realize Utah was on the second night of a back-to-back. We had a day off and were still getting beat like a dog.
Of course Neto makes that crap. Looks like a guy you pick 4th at the Y, and he's made two or three really difficult runners at the basket over a much taller defender.
Well, even with a much improved roster (on paper), our biggest flaw is still that Billy Donovan is our coach.
Favors can make 17-footers? Who knew.
It's over. We blew our wad to cut it to seven. Jazz get their starters back in after the timeout, and immediately push it back out to 13.*
On another note, how is Utah's starting lineup owning ours so badly? On paper, we're much more talented. I know games aren't played on paper and whatnot, but it makes no damn sense.
Ball movement. It’s fun to watch. Wish we did that.
Not what you expected after trading for Paul George and Carmelo. I kinda wish we hadn't traded for Carmelo and rolled with a Russ/PG13 dynamic duo.
Apparently Rubio found a jumper in the offseason because he's made quite a few jumper tonight. That, or he's just turned into the ultimate Thunder killer. He's always been a tough matchup for Russ, but now he has a jumper?
Can we trade Melo for Ingles? I'd take Ingles over Melo for what we need on this team.
The big 3 are 18 for 49 from field with 11 turnovers.
We're barely going to score 80 points. We have three guys who averaged 20+ PPG last year, and we're struggling to break the 80 point barrier.
This game is the perfect example of why most centers in the league are shooting threes. You need a stretch-5 to bring an elite rim protector like Gobert out of the paint, or else you're gonna look like OKC in the 1st half.
Really like the look of Donovan Mitchell
watching them move the ball is pretty great tbh
Rubio completely locked up Westbrook. More turnovers than points for Westbrook. Yikes
Did they really win though? No free Chick-fil-A has to count for something, right?... I was hoping we could take their Chick-Fil-A away from them. Close one but we got the W.
The Jazz did play with a passion and fury that we just did not have tonight
Steven "hands of butter" Adams
Knock Knock Who's there? 3 ISO players Oh hi OKC Thunder
We always have one game in Utah each year that's a total ****show. Hopefully we got it out of the way tonight.
GG Utah
Utah is just consistently getting shots at the basket and wide-open jumpers. Back to 18. That was our biggest deficit in the 1st half. This one's over.
How are we this much worse than Utah? They've dominated us in every facet of the game.
Utah isn't even good. They'll finish 5th in the West at best, and they're owning us tonight. I mean they're doing what ever the hell they want to us on both ends and making us like it.
They're sure as hell nowhere near as good as Golden State, Houston, or San Antonio. This may be another 45-48 win year.
Did Carmelo pass once?
• Yeah he did have that one very good pass to an open Abrines who bricked it hard. Around the time where we missed a thousand in a row and were stuck at 19 points with 4 to go in the second....
• 26pts on 26 shots isn't anything to write home about. Even if he scored 26, he killed any type of offensive flow for the Thunder whenever he got the ball. It was essentially just him ISOing and taking 20ft jumpers all game.
Jazz is a defensive juggernaut last season. Now they add tabo.
The Jazz held Westbrook to 6 points on 2-11 shooting tonight
Melo and George taking 45 shots combined is also part of the problem. They really need to work out how they can distribute the ball evenly between them and take efficient shots only.
Russ got absolutely owned by Rubio tonight. Gotta give credit where it's due, the jazz played very good defense.
That was a tough one but kinda expected. Utah is a gritty team that can punish the paint easily, and on their home turf. This is a team that can win against the best teams, and did last season. And when Ingles gets hot they have a disciplined guard who can space the floor, while Rudy punishes the paint.
This shouldn't be expected because Utah lacks offensive options and we have 3 all stars. They're also playing off a back to back and we're coming off what 3 days of rest? We had no reason to lose this game this badly.
Jazz are going to be a great team this season. Rubio was a perfect ****ing fit for them and their defense was just suffocating. They had some great ball movement, didn’t seem to miss anything, and played with a passion we just lacked tonight. They deserved that win and I really do hope they find awesome success this season (just not more than the Thunder)
On us, I just got to say damn. Our shots were just not falling. We took who too many terrible jumpers and did not try to get into the paint (the Jazz’s length just killed us there)
SLC is the new grind house
My questions after tonight: Does Billy Donovan own a playbook? Has Billy Donovan ever seen a playbook? Does his religion bar him from using a playbook? Is he legally blind in one eye? I need answers.
Got a new Grind house installed in the NBA I see. Seriously though our offense sucked but my god that was amazing defense
Jazz were smothering on defense, our offense was trash too tho
if Jazz are competitive in the western conference this season, does Quin Snyder get COY votes?
omg WB had 6 pts??
it was at times suffocating. jazz have two DPOY candidates on their team. Rudy and Udoh
We were so bad Joe 'Larry Bird' Ingles got MVP chants. Him talking trash on us was the lowest I've felt all month
Man those three are such a perfect fit for the Jazz. (Rubio, Udoh, and Sefolosha) You guys played amazing tonight, hitting everything you wanted when you wanted it and also playing just absolutely suffocating defense.
The issues this game? There's obviously a lot -- we had an awful game shooting the ball tonight. We were forced into making tough 3s because weren't looking for proper ball rotation. The Jazz had strong perimeter defense, and shots just didn't seem to fall for anybody. Playing from inside the paint was nearly impossible as well because our big, Steven Adams, could not possibly outbully Rudy Gobert. Epke Udoh also played fantastic defense, and every time the Thunder seemed to get in a bit of a rhythm it felt like Rudy Gobert was coming back with a powerful dunk, or Ricky Rubio and Joe Ingles hitting clutch threes to break a run.
The Jazz just outclassed us in the rotations. Thunder had poor rotations, as it felt like passes were kind of going nowhere and we were being forced into an awkward 3pt attempt from Carmelo or PG who both had no rhythm, except for Me7o who got a little hot towards the end. We were just getting outplayed, as the Jazz always had the proper matchup going. Offensive-wise the Jazz always felt like they had someone open, or at least one pass away from breaking open the entire Thunder defense. There's only so far you can go with good defenders like Roberson and Paul George if you don't have a strategy.
The good parts for the Jazz? Rudy Gobert is an unstoppable force in the paint, both offensively as defensively. Joe Ingles is a fantastic clutch shooter. The defense is probably the strongest in the league right now, their rotations are intelligent and well-planned out. Ricky Rubio just dropped 15. There's honestly a lot to look forward to for Jazz fans.
And most importantly, the Jazz dance girls are hot.
Negatives:
• The offense is still dependent on playing around the big 3. There’s nothing wrong with basing the offense off of your best players, but if you’re essentially taking turns going ISO you’ll get nights like this.
• Move the ****ing ball. Rather than playing the spread pick and roll or moving the ball off of a high screen like the Thunder have found success in the ball gets into the hands of one of the big three and stays there.
• Why leave your starters out for so long in the fourth? A blown game is a fine time to let your backup squad get minutes.
• Roberson is not being used properly. He was a slasher in college and finds success when he slashes but doesn’t do so very often at all. I understand this may reduce the efficiency of those cheeky lob plays but come on now.
• The weakside corner was open for the entire first quarter, and the sides were really never played well at any point in the game. Would not have been surprised if the jazz would have had twice as many threes go in
• Roberson not being able to slow down Ingles is not something that an OKC fan ever wants to see.
• Our frontcourt got **** on too. If Adams isn't posting 20 points on Gobert, hey we understand, but you can't let him get his either.
Positives:
• Melo can still get his. He got 26 and 46% shooting which will be plenty on most nights to help us win games.
• This is not a typical game for Westbrook agains the T-wolves. In the games of the past 2 years he gets around 25 points at a 45% clip, giving up 5-10 turnovers and trading steals with Rubio.
• Well, none of the players were scared to keep shooting at least. People joke but I'm fine with PG adopting a mamba mentality
• Felton is looking nice. Nothing amazing but he fills the role a defensive minded PG who can run an offense, I know our fans want to see the rookie get time but Felton is likely to stay.
WhyDidWe: (Lose)
The lack of ball movement from both the starters and bench really make it hard for any role player to catch fire. A cold jump-shooting night combined with a Rudy Gobert in the paint is Michelin stared' recipe for a loss.
So here's an interesting question: Would you trade Melo in exchange for Snyder as our head coach?
• I'll trade PG for Snyder and Ingles.
By the way, can we all stop pretending that Adams is in any way shape or form on Rudy gobert's level? A lot of us fall into that trap and every time I've seen them play it's just obvious that gobert impacts the game significantly more than Adams does.
PG passed up 2 potential bunnies because of Rudy and they both led to turnovers, Russ seemed to stop short of the rim(unlike himself) and pull up, Melo had a few lanes I seen that he didn't take and pulled up. 13 rebounds for Rudy, 13 for the starting front court of you guys, 13 for Russ himself which helps and I'm sure is by design.
westbrook and the thunder appear to believe that carmelo is still a star. that will harm the team.
Best Opponent:
JOE INGLES
SF, Utah Jazz
A+
He isn’t fast, he doesn’t have a great handle or out of this world offensive repertoire but Ingles can shoot. I am not sure if the OKC Thunder read the scouting report but Ingles was the third most efficient 3-point shooter last season yet, the Thunder continued to give him wide open looks. Ingles torched Oklahoma City for 19 points (7-12 shooting, 5-9 3PT) and picked up 3 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 steals.
Jazzavenues
https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/77xyao/post_game_thread_the_utah_jazz_21_defeat_the/
https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/77xlqw/the_utah_jazz_have_held_the_oklahoma_city_thunder/
https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/77xzn3/the_jazz_held_westbrook_to_6_points_on_211/
https://www.reddit.com/r/Thunder/comments/77xxxa/post_game_thread_oklahoma_city_thunder_utah_jazz/
https://www.reddit.com/r/Thunder/comments/77wz84/game_thread_oklahoma_city_thunder_utah_jazz_oct/
https://www.facebook.com/OKCThunder/
https://www.welcometoloudcity.com/2...r-vs-jazz-preview-2017-westbrook-gobert-adams
https://forums.realgm.com/boards/viewtopic.php?f=334&t=1626803
https://forums.realgm.com/boards/viewtopic.php?f=334&t=1626269
http://www.thunderfans.com/vforum/s...1-2017-Thunder-Jazz-(regular-season-02-of-82)
Getting ready for a blow out
In my opinion, George will be key to this game. Gobert-Adams will practically negate each other. George will be matched up with Ingles most likely and he should be able to take advantage of that matchup. Also, with Rubio's non-shooting, I think we will be able to contain their scorers quite well.
Hood is out because he’s made of glass. The helps our chances.
Good road test for this game. We should not have any issues with them but we are still working on the chemistry thing.. I really want to see us become confident and finish teams out on the road this year and not struggle like we have the last couple years.
I see us winning 110-97.
Utah's defense will provide a challenge. I don't think they can stop all three of our guys, I expect Abrines and Adams to have nice games. Hopefully Pat can get 10mins and stretch the defense he wasn't afraid to shoot.
Honestly, I think Adams looks so poised and and in command of his abilities that I think he will still look good if not great against top tier opposition in Gobert.
I am honestly more interested in how the Thunder is going to deal with Favors. Donovan probably will play Grant on him a lot, along Melo and 2Pat, but he should try Huestis because 240 vs 210 lbs.
1/16 since middle of 1st
Excited to see more of patterson, don't see how Utah can keep up with okc tonight, especially with hood out. Hopefully abrines continues to get extended run, as Utah has limited weapons on the wing.
Ingles is a lot better than he's given credit for.
Can we not leave Ingles wide open? I swear we do it every time we play them. He's one of the most accurate shooters in the league, probably shouldn't have PG or Roberson ignoring him...
Feels like everything we set up is a three or post up. Not a lot of catching the ball moving towards the basket.
Really visible differences in the quality of coaching in this one.
I’m getting very sick of carmelo
Im thinking this is gonna be an easy win. They wont be able to stop us and dont have enough firepower themselves. Thunderup!
Utah are very underrated. Alot of people think they are out of the top 8 now Hayward is gone.
Utah are a great defensive team. Defense will always give you a chance to win.
Utah could dominate our bench on the boards if we are not careful. Billy better not get too fancy with dem lineups!
Utah is like the opposite of us, they're 13 deep when healthy.
PG steal, PG with the bucket. Another steal, Melo bucket. I like this. A lot.
This is going to be a tough game, I think. I could see Utah's size giving us some problems.
Adams has been our best player. Since preseason.
Russ has driven twice without success then left us 4v5 on defence.
It's only a 7 point game, but damn 6 for 22 is absolutely not acceptable.. So many contested shots, stupid 3's.. Jazz getting in our paint so easily, that and the 3's are why they are up 7. Lets go. Get hot pls
SHARE. THE. BALL.
One thing I dont get. Melo and PG, you drive to the basket and 2-3 Jazz players gathers around you, why don't you kick the ball out???
This was not how I was expecting his game to go down. My god. We have to pull this together.
When I finally found a stream and got the game going, we were up 12-11. We've been outscored 20-4 since. I'm to blame.
The Jazz are playing lockdown defense and the Thunder are doing nothing but jacking up contested jumpers. Not the refs fault.
We are on track to score 50 tonight. We are unstoppable.
Vote to forfeit
20 minutes into the game and we still haven't hit the 20 point mark.
9 turnovers 8 field goals
This has to be the worst offensive stretch of basketball in Thunder history.
Jesus Christ. Try something other than a jumper maybe? No?
The jazz are ****ing garbage but the refs have made us passive on the defensive end. Every touch is called while me get mugged
24% from the field. Give me a break.
Why can’t we move the ball like Utah?
You can go under the screen against Rubio...don't do it against Joe Johnson.
Does George sometimes make a shot? I swear everyone who puts on a thunder uniform has their shooting percentage drop by 10%.
This is unbelievably horrible. Starting to just laugh now.
I'm shocked we can even make dunks
Gobert has been doing moving screens since the game started
I'm no expert, but I think we're playing like ****.
We're playing sloppy but Jesus Christ we should have at least 10 points on uncalled fouls alone. We've yet to get a call at the rim and they're clobbering us every time we get down there
Did all our guys just like stay out all night partying last night wtf is going on???
**** Rudy and his moving screens
Since when does Rubio shoot 3s?
Utah is always one of the best coached teams in the league
Idk if Quinn Snyder could work well with our roster (too many egos to buy in, probably) but I respect his teams
Utah also added Epe Udoh, who's defense has been lights out these first three games.
We're supposed to be a 2nd tier contender and our only hope against Utah is that they don't have their legs in the second half...
Maybe this is what we need. Quit making big three promo videos and learn how to run an offense.
Felton and Westbrook together. Our coach is a moron.
If somehow okc can cut lead to single digits by half, it will feel like a moral victory. I hate moral victories
Melo doesn’t need to shoot 14 shots in a half. Ever.
Ingles is killing us. That's ****ing sad.
Keep ingles on the bench please. We can't guard him. So sad
Adams gotta go. I'm sick of his no playing ***. Most over paid player in the NBA.
34 pts at half won't cut it in the west. I'm not too worried, but it's definitely not something you want to see with a team that has 3 all stars and reigning mvp.
The Utah Jazz have held the Oklahoma City Thunder to 34 points in the first half.* It's hard to imagine this lasting through the whole game, but so far the Thunder are settling for jumpers against this Jazz defense, and the shots are not going down.
Pretty sure 15 of those points came in the last 3.5 minutes. Unreal.
Carmelo Anthony: 5-14 shooting Paul George: 4-10 shooting Russell Westbrook: 1-7 shooting The big question, I think, is how are the Jazz going to respond when (at least) one of these guys goes off in the second half?
Bottom of Form
No way we will play that bad in the 2nd half, it doesn't seem possible.
Atleast we get a male polestripper act for the halftimeshow.
Wtf is with this homoerotic male pole dancing in Utah of all places? (halftime cirque show)
• Believe me, I'm as confused as you are.
Defense keeps OKC close to this game. But the jazz really is a scary team defensively. TIL they have tabo which was a shutdown wing defender. Ricky Rubio channeling his inner steph curry.
Love to have some back and forth iso match up between iso joe and melo
I know that Jazz is a good defensive team, but that's not why we're shooting like 5%
Ingles and George having a 3PT shooting contest haha
So wait, Ingles walks into Adams and Adams get a technical?
Westbrook is getting really frustrated.
49 pts in 3 qtrs is just unacceptable. Starting to look like the suns out there.
This game is killing me I might smash my tv soon lol
Ricky Bleeping Rubio has hit two or three mid-range jumpers and two threes.
This guy isn't supposed to be able to shoot.
**** these refs, no calls for us but our player breathes and it’s a foul...
TIL I hate Ingles. He's an *******. And really good.
It wouldn't be so bad if they were calling the game evenly but they're whistling us for any little contact
The fact Russ is probably going to miss a triple double because he didn't get 10 points has me astonished
s there a reason we keep trying to get right under the basket with half their team swarming us?
rubio is looking for that pass to Gobert EVERY. TIME. can we at least stop that?
Gobert is man of the match. He's finished most everything he's received in the post, and he's completely shut us out of the paint.
steve is not even in the same league as Gobert. getting showed up right now.
That's, like, our 23rd foul in the last 6 possessions.
It's not a trap game. Utah is a solid team playing at home with a system that uses their talent perfectly. We have no offensive system to fall back on when shots don't fall. Also, Utah is perfectly created to take away Russ's slashing.
Zero movement on offense. Iso and 2 man games never will win a championship. Didn't work with Westbrook durant and harden. Didn't work with Westbrook and durant. Wont work with Westbrook melo and pg. Cant believe this team hasnt figured out what the great teams like the spurs and warriors do to win rings.
Didn't even realize Utah was on the second night of a back-to-back. We had a day off and were still getting beat like a dog.
Of course Neto makes that crap. Looks like a guy you pick 4th at the Y, and he's made two or three really difficult runners at the basket over a much taller defender.
Well, even with a much improved roster (on paper), our biggest flaw is still that Billy Donovan is our coach.
Favors can make 17-footers? Who knew.
It's over. We blew our wad to cut it to seven. Jazz get their starters back in after the timeout, and immediately push it back out to 13.*
On another note, how is Utah's starting lineup owning ours so badly? On paper, we're much more talented. I know games aren't played on paper and whatnot, but it makes no damn sense.
Ball movement. It’s fun to watch. Wish we did that.
Not what you expected after trading for Paul George and Carmelo. I kinda wish we hadn't traded for Carmelo and rolled with a Russ/PG13 dynamic duo.
Apparently Rubio found a jumper in the offseason because he's made quite a few jumper tonight. That, or he's just turned into the ultimate Thunder killer. He's always been a tough matchup for Russ, but now he has a jumper?
Can we trade Melo for Ingles? I'd take Ingles over Melo for what we need on this team.
The big 3 are 18 for 49 from field with 11 turnovers.
We're barely going to score 80 points. We have three guys who averaged 20+ PPG last year, and we're struggling to break the 80 point barrier.
This game is the perfect example of why most centers in the league are shooting threes. You need a stretch-5 to bring an elite rim protector like Gobert out of the paint, or else you're gonna look like OKC in the 1st half.
Really like the look of Donovan Mitchell
watching them move the ball is pretty great tbh
Rubio completely locked up Westbrook. More turnovers than points for Westbrook. Yikes
Did they really win though? No free Chick-fil-A has to count for something, right?... I was hoping we could take their Chick-Fil-A away from them. Close one but we got the W.
The Jazz did play with a passion and fury that we just did not have tonight
Steven "hands of butter" Adams
Knock Knock Who's there? 3 ISO players Oh hi OKC Thunder
We always have one game in Utah each year that's a total ****show. Hopefully we got it out of the way tonight.
GG Utah
Utah is just consistently getting shots at the basket and wide-open jumpers. Back to 18. That was our biggest deficit in the 1st half. This one's over.
How are we this much worse than Utah? They've dominated us in every facet of the game.
Utah isn't even good. They'll finish 5th in the West at best, and they're owning us tonight. I mean they're doing what ever the hell they want to us on both ends and making us like it.
They're sure as hell nowhere near as good as Golden State, Houston, or San Antonio. This may be another 45-48 win year.
Did Carmelo pass once?
• Yeah he did have that one very good pass to an open Abrines who bricked it hard. Around the time where we missed a thousand in a row and were stuck at 19 points with 4 to go in the second....
• 26pts on 26 shots isn't anything to write home about. Even if he scored 26, he killed any type of offensive flow for the Thunder whenever he got the ball. It was essentially just him ISOing and taking 20ft jumpers all game.
Jazz is a defensive juggernaut last season. Now they add tabo.
The Jazz held Westbrook to 6 points on 2-11 shooting tonight
Melo and George taking 45 shots combined is also part of the problem. They really need to work out how they can distribute the ball evenly between them and take efficient shots only.
Russ got absolutely owned by Rubio tonight. Gotta give credit where it's due, the jazz played very good defense.
That was a tough one but kinda expected. Utah is a gritty team that can punish the paint easily, and on their home turf. This is a team that can win against the best teams, and did last season. And when Ingles gets hot they have a disciplined guard who can space the floor, while Rudy punishes the paint.
This shouldn't be expected because Utah lacks offensive options and we have 3 all stars. They're also playing off a back to back and we're coming off what 3 days of rest? We had no reason to lose this game this badly.
Jazz are going to be a great team this season. Rubio was a perfect ****ing fit for them and their defense was just suffocating. They had some great ball movement, didn’t seem to miss anything, and played with a passion we just lacked tonight. They deserved that win and I really do hope they find awesome success this season (just not more than the Thunder)
On us, I just got to say damn. Our shots were just not falling. We took who too many terrible jumpers and did not try to get into the paint (the Jazz’s length just killed us there)
SLC is the new grind house
My questions after tonight: Does Billy Donovan own a playbook? Has Billy Donovan ever seen a playbook? Does his religion bar him from using a playbook? Is he legally blind in one eye? I need answers.
Got a new Grind house installed in the NBA I see. Seriously though our offense sucked but my god that was amazing defense
Jazz were smothering on defense, our offense was trash too tho
if Jazz are competitive in the western conference this season, does Quin Snyder get COY votes?
omg WB had 6 pts??
it was at times suffocating. jazz have two DPOY candidates on their team. Rudy and Udoh
We were so bad Joe 'Larry Bird' Ingles got MVP chants. Him talking trash on us was the lowest I've felt all month
Man those three are such a perfect fit for the Jazz. (Rubio, Udoh, and Sefolosha) You guys played amazing tonight, hitting everything you wanted when you wanted it and also playing just absolutely suffocating defense.
The issues this game? There's obviously a lot -- we had an awful game shooting the ball tonight. We were forced into making tough 3s because weren't looking for proper ball rotation. The Jazz had strong perimeter defense, and shots just didn't seem to fall for anybody. Playing from inside the paint was nearly impossible as well because our big, Steven Adams, could not possibly outbully Rudy Gobert. Epke Udoh also played fantastic defense, and every time the Thunder seemed to get in a bit of a rhythm it felt like Rudy Gobert was coming back with a powerful dunk, or Ricky Rubio and Joe Ingles hitting clutch threes to break a run.
The Jazz just outclassed us in the rotations. Thunder had poor rotations, as it felt like passes were kind of going nowhere and we were being forced into an awkward 3pt attempt from Carmelo or PG who both had no rhythm, except for Me7o who got a little hot towards the end. We were just getting outplayed, as the Jazz always had the proper matchup going. Offensive-wise the Jazz always felt like they had someone open, or at least one pass away from breaking open the entire Thunder defense. There's only so far you can go with good defenders like Roberson and Paul George if you don't have a strategy.
The good parts for the Jazz? Rudy Gobert is an unstoppable force in the paint, both offensively as defensively. Joe Ingles is a fantastic clutch shooter. The defense is probably the strongest in the league right now, their rotations are intelligent and well-planned out. Ricky Rubio just dropped 15. There's honestly a lot to look forward to for Jazz fans.
And most importantly, the Jazz dance girls are hot.
Negatives:
• The offense is still dependent on playing around the big 3. There’s nothing wrong with basing the offense off of your best players, but if you’re essentially taking turns going ISO you’ll get nights like this.
• Move the ****ing ball. Rather than playing the spread pick and roll or moving the ball off of a high screen like the Thunder have found success in the ball gets into the hands of one of the big three and stays there.
• Why leave your starters out for so long in the fourth? A blown game is a fine time to let your backup squad get minutes.
• Roberson is not being used properly. He was a slasher in college and finds success when he slashes but doesn’t do so very often at all. I understand this may reduce the efficiency of those cheeky lob plays but come on now.
• The weakside corner was open for the entire first quarter, and the sides were really never played well at any point in the game. Would not have been surprised if the jazz would have had twice as many threes go in
• Roberson not being able to slow down Ingles is not something that an OKC fan ever wants to see.
• Our frontcourt got **** on too. If Adams isn't posting 20 points on Gobert, hey we understand, but you can't let him get his either.
Positives:
• Melo can still get his. He got 26 and 46% shooting which will be plenty on most nights to help us win games.
• This is not a typical game for Westbrook agains the T-wolves. In the games of the past 2 years he gets around 25 points at a 45% clip, giving up 5-10 turnovers and trading steals with Rubio.
• Well, none of the players were scared to keep shooting at least. People joke but I'm fine with PG adopting a mamba mentality
• Felton is looking nice. Nothing amazing but he fills the role a defensive minded PG who can run an offense, I know our fans want to see the rookie get time but Felton is likely to stay.
WhyDidWe: (Lose)
The lack of ball movement from both the starters and bench really make it hard for any role player to catch fire. A cold jump-shooting night combined with a Rudy Gobert in the paint is Michelin stared' recipe for a loss.
So here's an interesting question: Would you trade Melo in exchange for Snyder as our head coach?
• I'll trade PG for Snyder and Ingles.
By the way, can we all stop pretending that Adams is in any way shape or form on Rudy gobert's level? A lot of us fall into that trap and every time I've seen them play it's just obvious that gobert impacts the game significantly more than Adams does.
PG passed up 2 potential bunnies because of Rudy and they both led to turnovers, Russ seemed to stop short of the rim(unlike himself) and pull up, Melo had a few lanes I seen that he didn't take and pulled up. 13 rebounds for Rudy, 13 for the starting front court of you guys, 13 for Russ himself which helps and I'm sure is by design.
westbrook and the thunder appear to believe that carmelo is still a star. that will harm the team.
Best Opponent:
JOE INGLES
SF, Utah Jazz
A+
He isn’t fast, he doesn’t have a great handle or out of this world offensive repertoire but Ingles can shoot. I am not sure if the OKC Thunder read the scouting report but Ingles was the third most efficient 3-point shooter last season yet, the Thunder continued to give him wide open looks. Ingles torched Oklahoma City for 19 points (7-12 shooting, 5-9 3PT) and picked up 3 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 steals.
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