Well… We can only go up from here right? The Utah Jazz suffered yet another road loss Sunday night at the hands of the Minnesota Timberwolves, without Anthony Edwards. Now 1-9, the Jazz tonight matched the 2013-14 Utah Jazz for the worst 10-game start to the season since the team has been in Utah. As you will recall, that 2013-14 squad included a rookie Rudy Gobert and head coach Ty Corbin… So, that is definitely not great at all!
The Bench
Even under ideal circumstances, you are just not going to win a lot
of basketball games when your bench unit is as poor as the Jazz’ bench was tonight, and honestly, really all year. Tonight, the Jazz bench scored only 2o points. Not only were they not scoring points, but they were bleeding points on the other end with extremely porous defense. With three of the Jazz’ most important players already not in uniform, and Keyonte George clearly hampered by illness, you just need bench guys to come in and at least hold the line by making some shots or getting stops on defense. None of those things happened.
More Injuries
Already down three starters in Jusuf Nurkic, Lauri Markkanen, and Jaren Jackson Jr., Keyonte George joined the ever-growing list of injuries for the Jazz when he suffered an ankle injury in the 4th quarter. Aside from the fact that today is Keyonte’s 23rd birthday and it sucks to get hurt on your birthday, if Keyonte is out for an extended period of time with this ankle injury, the Jazz truly might be in a whole different realm of trouble. Here’s to hoping Key can rebound quickly and get back on the court soon.
The Shining Pillar of Hope
With all the doom and gloom surrounding the Utah Jazz right now, Darryn Peterson showed up and showed out tonight, proving once again why he was the #2 overall pick in the draft. Darryn finished the night with 26 points 6 rebounds and 4 assists while shooting 52.4% from the field and 50% from three.
All of that, while not shooting a single free throw, indicating there is still plenty of room to grow. His aggressiveness and decisiveness were clear throughout the entirety of the game. Some of that was out of pure necessity due to the number of guys not in the game for the Jazz, but Darryn very obviously starting to get more comfortable in his abilities on an NBA floor. As the season progresses, it is very reasonable for Jazz fans to expect Peterson to clearly take the reins as one of the best, if not THE best, player on this Jazz squad.
Anyways, you can’t go 73-9 without losing 9 games… We move.
