Game 22: Utah Jazz (12-9) @ Phoenix Suns (12-6)

[red4hf]

Great 1st quarter by the Jazz....... Very unexpected...... Very welcomed.......

[bwgood77]

Busy game thread here...especially for a great game. Thought you guys would be excited about your team but I guess were probably hoping for that 14% chance at Victor.

[edededtut]

.. to foul or not to foul ?

[red4hf]

Why would you not foul? There was only a 2.6 second difference? One of the dumbest decisions made by Hardy......

[Crunch 99]

You would think the Jazz shooting 50.6%/40.6% vs the Suns' 45.7%/27.3%, including the duo of Sexton and Clarkson outscoring the duo of Payne and Booker, 42 pts on 29 fga vs 38 pts on 40 fga, would be enough to win the game, but I guess the Suns' big offensive board plus tov differential killed us.

Sexton had another pretty good game as starter.

[red4hf]

You would think the Jazz shooting 50.6%/40.6% vs the Suns' 45.7%/27.3%, including the duo of Sexton and Clarkson outscoring the duo of Payne and Booker, 42 pts on 29 fga vs 38 pts on 40 fga, would be enough to win the game, but I guess the Suns' big offensive board and tov differentials killed us.

Sexton had another pretty good game as starter.

Rebounding absolutely killed us last night.......

[Inigo Montoya]

Our defensive problems continue. Too many instances of players waltzing into the paint uninterrupted, and yet another game in which we allow a beastly performance by the opposing center.

Seems like the scouting report is out on Markkanen, he's been having a tough time as of late.

I thought that Sexton and NAW played well.

I think the last possession of the game was handled poorly by Hardy. The Suns had the ball with only 2 second difference between the shot clock and the game clock. Letting them run out the clock ensured we'd lose the game, because all they needed to do was to put up a shot at the last second, and by the time someone grabbed the rebound the game would be over. Imho, they should have pressed for like 10 seconds and then foul.

We are now two games over .500. The time for the FO to make some decisions is coming.

[reapaman]

I know it won’t happen because the Jazz front office never changes no matter whose in it, but it’s time to put everyone up for trade. Fire sale if you must. Everyone must go and start over before it’s to late.

Markkanen has to go now before he’s exposed more. He’s had 10+ game stretches with the bulls and cavs where he’s great like he was earlier this season, but then he starts wetting the bed when teams start targeting him and he gets inconsistent on both ends of the court. Not to mention the injury history which is gonna rear it’s ugly head eventually. The guy has been in the league 5 seasons and two teams have gaven up on him for a reason and it’s not always the teams fault for “using himself wrong” or “it’s the guards fault for not setting him up right” or whatever. None of those excuses matter if he’s that dude like Lebron, giannis, Durant, luka or whomever. He’s just another guy, nothing special. Time to send him on the first thing smoking before it’s to late.

Sexton, Clarkson, etc … are fine scoring additions if you have a core in place, but we don’t so they need to be sent on the first thing smoking as well so we can build a core which the next draft and free agency if a great opportunity to start.

[edededtut]

Seems like the scouting report is out on Markkanen, he's been having a tough time as of late.

It’s obviously on Lauri to get things done without Conley setting him up, but Mike being out has really affected Lauri’s scoring. Could be he is being guarded differently too. Not too many easy looks in recent games.

Back-to-backs have always been difficult also.

And it really shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone that Lauri and Olynyk are in trouble rebounding against bigs like ayton, especially when Beasley replaces vanderbilt in some lineups.

[mg]

I know it won’t happen because the Jazz front office never changes no matter whose in it, but it’s time to put everyone up for trade. Fire sale if you must. Everyone must go and start over before it’s to late.

Markkanen has to go now before he’s exposed more. He’s had 10+ game stretches with the bulls and cavs where he’s great like he was earlier this season, but then he starts wetting the bed when teams start targeting him and he gets inconsistent on both ends of the court. Not to mention the injury history which is gonna rear it’s ugly head eventually. The guy has been in the league 5 seasons and two teams have gaven up on him for a reason and it’s not always the teams fault for “using himself wrong” or “it’s the guards fault for not setting him up right” or whatever. None of those excuses matter if he’s that dude like Lebron, giannis, Durant, luka or whomever. He’s just another guy, nothing special. Time to send him on the first thing smoking before it’s to late.

Sexton, Clarkson, etc … are fine scoring additions if you have a core in place, but we don’t so they need to be sent on the first thing smoking as well so we can build a core which the next draft and free agency if a great opportunity to start.

Yeah I somewhat agree. Lauri can make a really fine Robin if he continues to stay healthy but that really doesn't do much for the Jazz until they find a Batman. Maybe they get super lucky in the next draft or thru a trade in the offseason. I think Ainge might start to look at trade options for him by the '24 deadline if they haven't found a #1 by that point.

Actually Sexton and Kessler are probably my 2 favorite guys on the team. I look at it this way.. Let's say we are looking at Thanksgiving dinner. Lauri is the bacon wrapped stuffing. Sexton is the zesty cranberry sauce and maybe Kessler is the Hawaiian rolls. JC is the buttery whipped potatoes. Clarkson is already 30 though. We don't know if Sexton/Kessler will be starters or high end backups on a future Jazz contending team. It would depend on who they eventually draft/acquire in trade. They don't have the main course on the roster yet so it's kind of difficult to tell who are the keepers at this point. Maybe they keep JC as a culture piece depending on his cost as he's eligible to opt out of his contract next summer. Sexton/Kessler are obviously both signed to reasonable long contracts so the team has the option to give them a longer look.

[Jiipee84]

I know it won’t happen because the Jazz front office never changes no matter whose in it, but it’s time to put everyone up for trade. Fire sale if you must. Everyone must go and start over before it’s to late.

Markkanen has to go now before he’s exposed more. He’s had 10+ game stretches with the bulls and cavs where he’s great like he was earlier this season, but then he starts wetting the bed when teams start targeting him and he gets inconsistent on both ends of the court. Not to mention the injury history which is gonna rear it’s ugly head eventually. The guy has been in the league 5 seasons and two teams have gaven up on him for a reason and it’s not always the teams fault for “using himself wrong” or “it’s the guards fault for not setting him up right” or whatever. None of those excuses matter if he’s that dude like Lebron, giannis, Durant, luka or whomever. He’s just another guy, nothing special. Time to send him on the first thing smoking before it’s to late.

Sexton, Clarkson, etc … are fine scoring additions if you have a core in place, but we don’t so they need to be sent on the first thing smoking as well so we can build a core which the next draft and free agency if a great opportunity to start.

Lauri absolutely has one and exteremely infuriating bad habit to disappear after when he's played one or several good games.
Especially when Lauri is hot he plays like Dirk but when he's exhausted and tired he plays like some freaking G league bench scrub.
Those 10-19 point games are trash if Lauri's serious goal truly is a allstar game.

As a player and shooter Lauri cannot be so depend on that does Conley play or not.
And seriously said Lauri's whole game cannot being up to missing one player
but this can be said whole Jazz team not only Lauri.

Right now it looks truly that Jazz surprising good start in October and early November was lucky fluke.
And it happend only because other teams seriously underestimated Jazz and Conley was running offensive game.
Now when Conley is out Jazz games are going downhill and losing streak is more a rule than exception to the rule.

Jazz honeymoon is coming to end and it is matter of the time when serious tanking will start.

[bwgood77]

You guys have a very high differential so far in home and road games. 8 home games to 14 road games. I think the only others close are Portland and Denver.

Interesting that Phx and Utah had the same # of wins going into last night and the seeds difference after the game is 1 and 8.

Obviously the teams are about equal, each game being decided by 1 point. But the Suns have also played 12 home games and only 7 road games.

[SoCalJazzFan]

Lauri is the bacon wrapped stuffing.

Bacon wrapped stuffing? Sounds amazing, but is that really a thing?

[mg]

Lauri is the bacon wrapped stuffing.

Bacon wrapped stuffing? Sounds amazing, but is that really a thing?

Ofc but it's very gourmet. Just my way of saying tasty as Lauri has been playing we are still missing the main course turkey.

[mg]

You guys have a very high differential so far in home and road games. 8 home games to 14 road games. I think the only others close are Portland and Denver.

Interesting that Phx and Utah had the same # of wins going into last night and the seeds difference after the game is 1 and 8.

Obviously the teams are about equal, each game being decided by 1 point. But the Suns have also played 12 home games and only 7 road games.

Yeah the schedule makers obviously felt Utah would be a tanking team. Those squads typically get shafted by the schedule maker early on just ask SAC and ORL fans about it.

[bwgood77]

You guys have a very high differential so far in home and road games. 8 home games to 14 road games. I think the only others close are Portland and Denver.

Interesting that Phx and Utah had the same # of wins going into last night and the seeds difference after the game is 1 and 8.

Obviously the teams are about equal, each game being decided by 1 point. But the Suns have also played 12 home games and only 7 road games.

Yeah the schedule makers obviously felt Utah would be a tanking team. Those squads typically get shafted by the schedule maker early on just ask SAC and ORL fans about it.

I don't know if they take that into consideration. It's hard enough to make the schedules just with other things going on at all the arenas. A lot to juggle. Personally as a fan of a team that hopes to contend, I'd probably rather have more home games later. I don't see them making a schedule thinking "this team will probably trade Mitchell and totally tank, so lets give them a road heavy schedule early." The Clips have had a road heavy schedule too.