And here come the excuses. This team doesn't want to compete, they want to roll over and die so they can start their summer. Same thing we've seen all year.
Game Thread Apr 21, 2022 07:00PM MT: Jazz vs. Mavericks - Game 3
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Added to Calendar: 04-21-22
And here come the excuses. This team doesn't want to compete, they want to roll over and die so they can start their summer. Same thing we've seen all year.
That's from last year.
Forgive me for having dejavu lol.
Totally understandable.
Some things that a human coach might consider doing in game 3:
1. Actually have defensive rotations off the ball outside of Gobert. The Mavs don't have a lot of great shooters. Quin's approach has been to allow the "worst" shooter to have a wide open 3 with no resistance. If Maxi Kleber is 7-9 from 3 and is wide open in the corner, try defending it. This should be really easy to implement. When Gobert helps, someone else covers rotates to cover the guy Gobert was guarding. Make them complete at least one more pass, or a more difficult pass to the wing, instead of allowing a wide open uncontested 3. I think pro players should be able to handle this simple concept, but who knows at this point.
2. Acknowledge that Mitchell and Conley can't defend, so trap every time they try to get the switch. This is what the Mavericks do with Bertans, and although it opens up some gaps, it's better than having Bertans on an island guarding 1v1. Give up on the idea that Conley and Mitchell can stay in front. Trap and get the ball out of Brunson's hands.
3. Go full Harden mode and allow the drive. Accept the reality that we cannot defend, so instead of trying to stay in front just give up and try to rotate out to a shooter. Gobert is going to have to rotate anyways, so you might as well try to be useful. This works great in tandem with the first point. This may sound crazy, but Luka coming back might actually help us in this regard. Brunson may play like Luka Doncic against us, but he's Jalen Brunson and we haven't accepted reality that he will dominate our perimeter defense. With Luka, Quin might treat him like Harden and deploy the same type of doggy style defense. Some combination of treating Luka like Harden and Luka not being 100% might work.
In any case, I think we need to give up on the idea of staying in front of the ball handler. We don't have the defensive talent to stay in front of Brunson and Dinwiddie. Conley and Mitchell are two big of liabilities and everyone else is having a hard enough time anyways. We know they're going to get burnt and the solution has to be better than leaving Kleber wide open from 3 or giving up the free layup. The Mavericks still chop us up if they're forced into their own version of the blender, but I prefer the 3v4 defensive situation more than the 1v0 situation where it's Maxi Kleber vs air at the 3 point line. If we wanted to rely on proving some kind of resistance at the point of attack we needed to make trades. Can't do that now. Understand that we cannot defend on the perimeter and Gobert will have to help. It's a losing position but we have to live with it. We can't live in fantasyland where Conley and Mitchell can defend Brunson or giving up uncontested corner 3's is a better outcome.
1. Actually have defensive rotations off the ball outside of Gobert. The Mavs don't have a lot of great shooters. Quin's approach has been to allow the "worst" shooter to have a wide open 3 with no resistance. If Maxi Kleber is 7-9 from 3 and is wide open in the corner, try defending it. This should be really easy to implement. When Gobert helps, someone else covers rotates to cover the guy Gobert was guarding. Make them complete at least one more pass, or a more difficult pass to the wing, instead of allowing a wide open uncontested 3. I think pro players should be able to handle this simple concept, but who knows at this point.
2. Acknowledge that Mitchell and Conley can't defend, so trap every time they try to get the switch. This is what the Mavericks do with Bertans, and although it opens up some gaps, it's better than having Bertans on an island guarding 1v1. Give up on the idea that Conley and Mitchell can stay in front. Trap and get the ball out of Brunson's hands.
3. Go full Harden mode and allow the drive. Accept the reality that we cannot defend, so instead of trying to stay in front just give up and try to rotate out to a shooter. Gobert is going to have to rotate anyways, so you might as well try to be useful. This works great in tandem with the first point. This may sound crazy, but Luka coming back might actually help us in this regard. Brunson may play like Luka Doncic against us, but he's Jalen Brunson and we haven't accepted reality that he will dominate our perimeter defense. With Luka, Quin might treat him like Harden and deploy the same type of doggy style defense. Some combination of treating Luka like Harden and Luka not being 100% might work.
In any case, I think we need to give up on the idea of staying in front of the ball handler. We don't have the defensive talent to stay in front of Brunson and Dinwiddie. Conley and Mitchell are two big of liabilities and everyone else is having a hard enough time anyways. We know they're going to get burnt and the solution has to be better than leaving Kleber wide open from 3 or giving up the free layup. The Mavericks still chop us up if they're forced into their own version of the blender, but I prefer the 3v4 defensive situation more than the 1v0 situation where it's Maxi Kleber vs air at the 3 point line. If we wanted to rely on proving some kind of resistance at the point of attack we needed to make trades. Can't do that now. Understand that we cannot defend on the perimeter and Gobert will have to help. It's a losing position but we have to live with it. We can't live in fantasyland where Conley and Mitchell can defend Brunson or giving up uncontested corner 3's is a better outcome.
It's from last year and yet we kept hearing about how we just need to be healthy. Well, we're healthy. We've got all our guys out there and we're still getting identical results last game as we got the previous two playoffs.
Maybe we can be SUPER healthy next year.
reignman40
Well-Known Member
When I was day dreaming during a workout earlier I realized, 2 of our last 3 playoff games were loses... BUT not just any loses, we lost in spectacular fashion. The type of L's you might experience once every 10 years in the playoffs. But these happened twice in 3 games. Ughhh
Game 3 against the bulls in 98 we lost 96-54, it was bad because it was the finals but these last two take the cake.
Game 3 against the bulls in 98 we lost 96-54, it was bad because it was the finals but these last two take the cake.
l Abach l
Well-Known Member
Think G5 in 97 was the biggest heartbreaker for me (tied with g6 in 98). All the Jazz had to do to win that was have Malone box out Kukoc on a missed free throw ...
Game 6 against LAL in 08 sucked too
If Utah doesn't win this game in convincing fashion then they have 0 chance to win more than 1 game against the Sun's.
ESPN is saying Luka is looking at coming back for game 3. I think it's a must win.
FrenchJazzFa
Well-Known Member
Actually i don't think its such a bad new if Luka is back. First he will be far from 100% after his injury. And second, with him. Dallas is supposed to beat us, pressure may be down.... and we not really confortable with pressure 
LogGrad98
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Even if they do win in convincing fashion I still think they have little to no chance of taking more than 1 game against the Suns. 1 game does not a trend make. It would be a good sign but I am not holding my breath.
Some how how many games we will win against the Suns isn't much of a worry right now.
Agreed. I hope he gets back on the court as soon as possible. The psychological pressure of playing a team they are “supposed” to beat is probably too much for this team.Actually i don't think its such a bad new if Luka is back. First he will be far from 100% after his injury. And second, with him. Dallas is supposed to beat us, pressure may be down.... and we not really confortable with pressure
homeytennis
Well-Known Member
I'm telling ya it's Gay Butler time to save things.
outerspacefan
Well-Known Member
Fellow posters... this Jazz roster offers right now only one way to fix the issues.... Rudy's got to punish small ball lineups on offense...
There's just no other logical turnaround, unless they shoot unnatural % on treys or any other outlier alike...
So sit comfortably and just enjoy watching them play some competitive postseason ball while you still can, because this off season will mark the start of a looooong and painful rebuilding proccess
There's just no other logical turnaround, unless they shoot unnatural % on treys or any other outlier alike...
So sit comfortably and just enjoy watching them play some competitive postseason ball while you still can, because this off season will mark the start of a looooong and painful rebuilding proccess
Bawse Dawg
Well-Known Member
There is still no good reason why they can't hit Rudy when he is directly under the basket with a tiny guard behind him. Makes it that much more frustrating.
I would rather try going under the screen and making players take pressure longer distance 3s vs wide open corner shots. That is the only way the guards will have a chance to stay in front of their man (I'd actually prefer they anticipate and slip screens, but that seems to be outside their capability).
The lack of rotations on defense drive me crazy.
Mavs arent playing any small-ball lineups. Kleiber and Powell arent small. When they have played Bertans we have destroyed him. The Jazz have a 24-9 advantage in offensive rebounds for the series.
When Rudy gets an actual small on him, the Jazz need to be trying to get him the ball. All I see right now is some weird *** mandate from Quin to give Rudy the ball to start the game so him and Donovan dont get criticized for Rudy only getting 1 pass from Mitchell (in the backcourt lmfao) and Rudy only having 1 shot.
They dont need to shoot a crazy % from 3. They just need to shoot what they usually average and get more attempts up.
They aren't exactly setting screens with Gobert's man, especially not late in games when the game went to hell. We are getting beaten 1on1 without screens. I suppose we could fight harder to not give switches onto Conley/Mitchell, but tbh I don't think O'Neale can guard Brunson/Dinwiddie anyways.
In general, however, I agree that we need to make Brunson/Dinwiddie take off the dribble 3's. It's than free Kleber uncontested 3's in the corner. It's fine that Gobert is cutting off the drives, but we cannot be content with the corner 3. At least make them make one more pass.