The Utah Jazz will seek their first win of the young season as they embark on their first road trip to play the Dallas Mavericks on Monday evening.
Jazz coach Will Hardy called for an extensive film review session Saturday, a day after his team fell 127-86 at home to the Golden State Warriors. The 41-point drubbing, according to ChampsorChumps.com, represented the second-worst home loss in franchise history. Their worst loss came in a 125-80 loss to the Houston Rockets on Jan. 28, 2013.
Rather than practice on Saturday, Hardy turned his team’s attention to the film to review the second game of the season. He called it “a mental day” as he sought input from the entire team on the performance.
“We don’t rely on one person to carry us, and so everybody has to do their job every day, and it’s good to get them to talk,” Hardy said. “It’s a different level of engagement when you’re participating in the conversation.
“I think the lecture style of coaching gets really stale, and it is hard to tell at times, like, how engaged they are, paying attention if they never have to speak. And so pretty much everybody on the team said something (Saturday).”
Hardy said the key takeaways from the session that the team needs to address are playing competitively and with urgency. Playing at half-speed, he added, will not lead to success.
For example, Golden State scored 38 points in the third quarter, and yet no Jazz player committed a foul.
“That’s almost impossible,” Hardy said. “Like, we didn’t bump into one person. We didn’t chop one person’s arm. That’s really hard to do in a 12-minute stretch, especially when they score 38 points.”
Lauri Markkanen leads the Jazz with a 24-point scoring average. The 7-foot forward, though, was limited to 13 points, shooting just 4-for-17 against the Warriors.
After winning their season opener Thursday against the San Antonio Spurs, the Mavericks fell on the road Saturday 114-102 to the Phoenix Suns. Phoenix never trailed after the first period, with Dallas getting as close as 68-67 early in the third quarter.
Unlike the Jazz, Mavericks coach Jason Kidd said his team committed too many fouls in its loss. Phoenix had 37 free-throw attempts, and the Suns outscored their guests 28-15 at the line. That fouling did more than give the Suns chances for uncontested points, Kidd told Mavs.com.
“When you’re taking the ball at the free-throw line and pausing or sitting there waiting for free throws, we just couldn’t get into rhythm,” he said.
Dallas got production from its top three players. Luka Doncic scored a game-high 40 points and grabbed 10 rebounds, while Kyrie Irving finished with 22 points and five assists. Newcomer Klay Thompson connected on 5 of 12 3-point shots en route to a 19-point performance. However, no one else scored more than seven points.
Doncic, last season’s scoring champion, is tied with Atlanta’s Trae Young and Los Angeles Laker Anthony Davis, all of whom lead the league averaging 34 points per game.
–Field Level Media
