Poor shooting leads to home loss for Jazz

SALT LAKE CITY – Utah’s nine-game win streak ended after a career-high 41 points from Atlanta’s Dennis Schroder and poor shooting from the Jazz. The 99-94 loss was just Utah’s third in 24 games and the first to a team with a losing record since the last time the Jazz played Atlanta on January 22.

Utah fell to 40-31 and the No. 8 spot in the Western Conference standings with the loss, but still have a two-and-a-half-game cushion over the No. 9 Denver Nuggets. The Hawks improved to 21-50.

The Jazz were just 6-of-34 from beyond the arc, a 17.6 percent mark that was the lowest of the season. Head coach Quin Snyder said it was an off night shooting, but that his team still wasn’t able to find other ways to score.

“The times we did get to the rim we weren’t able to finish well either,” he said. “It’s tough to overcome both those things. “

Despite the poor shooting, Utah was able to keep the game close thanks to its defense, but it didn’t last.

“At a certain point your defense bends and bends and bends,” Snyder said. “Then they made plays at the end of the game.”

Rookie guard Donovan Mitchell led the Jazz in scoring with 24 points while point guard Ricky Rubio added another 23. Rudy Gobert recorded a double-double with 16 rebounds and 15 points, but it was Atlanta’s Schroder who stole the show.

“He got it going in the first quarter hitting a bunch of shots,” Mitchell said of Schroder. “When you hit those shots it does a lot for your confidence. He just went off from there.”

Schroder scored nine early points to give the Hawks a 17-13 lead with less than five minutes remaining in the first quarter, but Rubio soon-after connected with Gobert for an alley-oop dunk, the beginning of a 13-4 first quarter finish for the Jazz.

Despite the momentum, the run didn’t continue into the second period. Atlanta was able to turn its 27-21 deficit into a 38-32 lead, but Rubio scored seven points in the final five minutes of the half to put the Jazz up 42-41 at the break.

It appeared Utah was ready pull away from the Hawks when a 12-2 run put the Jazz lead at 10 less than five minutes into the second half, but Atlanta responded quickly when Schroder and Dewayne Dedmon scored the next nine points. After Utah’s Jae Crowder retaliated with three points of his own, Atlanta hit back-to-back treys to retake the lead. The Jazz entered the fourth quarter up four, but was outscored 36-27 in the final period.

“They held us the whole game,” Gobert said. “We had to be able to play through it, and we did at times, but for the most part we didn’t.”

The Jazz had multiple opportunities to tie or take the lead in the final minute, but missed shots ruined all chances.

“That’s all it is,” Mitchell said. “Just an off night. We’ll get better and work together offensively. That’s just the biggest thing.”

Utah’s next game will be Thursday night at 6:30 p.m. at Dallas.

Free News Delivery by Email

Would you like to have the day's news stories delivered right to your inbox every evening? Enter your email below to start!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

For security, use of Google's reCAPTCHA service is required which is subject to the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

I agree to these terms.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.