Telling Conclusion Drawn From Jazz’s 103-117 Loss vs. Clippers
While things didn’t go as poorly as Wednesday night’s 50-point blowout vs. the Dallas Mavericks, the Utah Jazz fell flat once again against the Los Angeles Clippers, 103-117. It drops them to a 7-15 regular season record, only a half-game back from the 14th seed in the Western Conference.
It was a stellar night for Clippers’ forward Kawhi Leonard, posting a 41-point game accompanied by five rebounds and five assists. It was the highest-scoring individual performance the Jazz have gone up against this season. Paul George also chipped in for a respectable 20 points with three rebounds and three assists.
However, when it came time for the Jazz to match that production, there wasn’t an answer. We saw guys like John Collins (20 pts, 13 rebs, 4 blk) and Keyonte George (15 pts, 3 rebs) contribute their share, but it was too tough for Utah to stack up with the Clippers’ talent without All-Star Lauri Markkanen.
While Utah overcame their first two matchups without Markkanen against the New Orleans Pelicans, it’s now becoming apparent this team desperately needs Lauri’s offensive skillset in the lineup. Without it, it’s going to become increasingly more difficult to stay competitive in these types of games against talented rosters.
As a team against the Clippers, the Jazz shot a combined 29.0% from three (9/31) and under 50% from the field (38/84, 45.2%). This efficiency isn’t enough to overcome the high-level shot-making from guys like Kawhi, George, and James Harden, and could utilize a high-volume, consistent weapon like Markkanen in the lineup to offset this.
Without many players possessing both ideal efficiency and high volume besides Lauri to score the ball, it’s recently proven to be tough for the Jazz to remain competitive down the stretch of games. Of the Jazz’s 15 losses this season, only four have remained under a double-digit defeat.
Simply put, the Jazz need Lauri Markkanen on the floor to be successful. Without him, this team might be punching their ticket to the NBA Draft Lottery earlier than expected.
However, as he continues to rehab his most recent hamstring injury, the Jazz will have to find another source of points before falling into a deeper hole within the standings.
Markkanen’s next chance at a return comes on Monday when the Jazz travel to take on the Oklahoma City Thunder at 6:00 PM MT.
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