On Wednesday night, the Utah Jazz were in Oklahoma City to take on the Western Conference-leading Thunder, and the Jazz actually put up a really nice fight before eventually losing the battle, 123-114.
One of the reasons for the Jazz keeping the game tight, up until the final minutes of the fourth quarter, was the return to a mostly regular rotation. The team had been without Lauri Markkanen for the last four games, without John Collins for 12 of the last 13 games and had been alternating rest games with Walker Kessler and Collin Sexton as the Jazz went through an extremely soft stretch of the 2024-25 schedule. But, coincidentally (or perhaps not), when the Jazz were set to play against one of the toughest and deepest teams in the NBA, all four players were available to suit up.
The Thunder never led by more than 11 points and there were 16 lead changes in a game that saw some of the best of what the Jazz are capable of — generating points through offensive rebounds and second-chance opportunities, moving the ball, creating open looks for good shooters.
In particular, the presence of Kessler and Collins was huge for the Jazz. The two combined for 27 rebounds and were instrumental in the team getting 31 points off second-chance situations.
Even with the positive aspects of the Jazz’s performance, they were playing against a shorthanded Thunder roster — no Isaiah Hartenstein, Chet Holmgren or Isaiah Joe — and managed to show off some of their worst tendencies. They fouled a lot, turned the ball over too much and made mistakes when it came to guarding one of the smartest and most talented players in the league.
Shai’s career night
It wouldn’t really be a 2024-25 Utah Jazz game if the opponent didn’t pull off some historic feat or a player on the opposing team didn’t have a career night. So, it only seems fitting that the Jazz were the ones on the other side of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s career-best 54 points.
Although Gilgeous-Alexander went just 3-of-10 from 3-point range, he went 14-of-25 inside the arc and 17-of-18 from the free throw line.
“As it relates to Shai, obviously, he had a very big game,” Jazz head coach Will Hardy said. “The free throws is where it got away from us. We just did not do a good job with our hands, we got lazy, especially with our trail hand, as he’s playing iso, and he gathered through our arm a lot. We also had a couple too many possessions where secondary defenders, when he was spinning or gathering through the nail, swiped down across his arms. The intent of those plays is good, I think guys were trying to make a play on the ball, but if you give a player of his caliber 18 free throws, it’s going to be very, very hard.”
Turnovers
At this point there is not a lot to say about the Jazz turning the ball over. Hardy has called the Jazz’s turnover issue a “sampler platter” multiple times to get across the point that there is not single type of turnover that is causing all of the problems. Instead, it’s just a whole lot of every type of turnover and far too many live-ball turnovers that are then converted into transition points by the other team.
The main culprits on Wednesday were Collin Sexton, who committed eight of the Jazz’s 27 turnovers, John Collins, who committed six and Isaiah Collier, who also committed six.