Not much has gone right for the Utah Jazz and Orlando Magic since they last faced each other nearly a month ago.
Utah has lost eight in a row and 11 of 12 since winning back-to-back games at Miami and Orlando on Jan. 4-5. The Magic, meanwhile, haven’t been much better, dropping nine of 12 since that meeting.
The good news? A rough January is over, which gives both teams the chance to open February on a stronger note when they meet on Saturday in Salt Lake City.
The Jazz’s two wins in early January featured breakout performances for Brice Sensabaugh, who scored 34 points against Miami and added 27 in a 105-92 win at Orlando. But Sensabaugh’s minutes and impact have decreased since then as some of Utah’s key contributors returned to the lineup. Sensabaugh only scored three points in 15 minutes in Thursday’s 138-113 home loss to Minnesota.
Keyonte George led the Jazz with 23 points off the bench on Thursday. Collin Sexton, who scored 20 against the Magic, added 19 points against the Timberwolves while Jordan Clarkson and John Collins each had 16. Lauri Markkanen added 15 points.
Even with those mainstay players back in Utah’s rotation, however, the Jazz are struggling to put together a full game. They are competitive for stretches but then fall apart. That happened Thursday when they were outscored 44-22 in the third quarter as the Timberwolves turned a four-point game at halftime into a blowout.
“We’ve had a variety of lineups,” Utah coach Will Hardy said. “It’s not as easy as just plug-and-play when guys are coming back from being injured and sick and not playing. There’s a little bit of rhythm that’s lost in those moments and guys taking different roles. Nobody feels sorry for us and we don’t feel sorry for ourselves. We just keep pushing.”
Hardy isn’t too concerned that Markkanen only made 5 of 13 shots and struggled through a 3-for-10 3-point performance. The Finnish forward has only made 9 of 40 3s since returning to the lineup the past four games after a two-week absence.
“I think Lauri’s one of those players when you’re out, your rhythm can be gone a little bit — your legs,” Hardy said. “Being rested is one thing, but there’s also the feeling of being in really good shape. These guys are built and trained to play a lot of games. I have empathy for the fact he has moments where he feels a little clunky, but overall I’m not seeing a terrible trend in the types of 3s he’s getting.”
Neither Franz Wagner nor Paolo Banchero played in the last Jazz-Magic game due to oblique injuries. Wagner scored 24 points and Banchero had 21 in Orlando’s 119-90 loss at Portland on Thursday.
The Magic struggled after a 35-point first quarter against the Blazers, only scoring 55 points the rest of the game. They’ve lost the first two games in a six-game road trip.
“I think everyone on the team, and it starts from the top — from (Banchero), Franz, to the bottom,” Orlando guard Cole Anthony said. “As a unit, we just gotta stay confident and trust our work. I think a lot of the times, myself included too, stuff starts going the wrong way and we’ll start trying to defer to Franz, defer to (Banchero), and obviously, yeah, they’re great players.
“They help us win a lot of games and will continue to do that, but we got to make it easier for them at times. I think that they carry so much of the weight, so much of the burden, that it becomes overwhelming for them sometimes. We’ve got to try to ease that burden for them as some of the supporting cast.”
–Field Level Media
