The Utah Jazz dropped their third-straight game in a loss against Charlotte Hornets, with a final score of 103-126.
Here are the biggest takeaways from the night:
Makkanen and whose army?
Lauri Markkanen’s four game streak of 30+
point games snapped tonight. It was the longest 30-point scoring streak of his career. Tonight, he finished with 29 points on 12-28 shooting from the field and 3-10 from three.
Through six games, he’s looked more engaged and aggressive than at any point in the past two seasons. It’s clearly paying off – he’s averaging nearly 32 points per game and a top-10 scorer in the NBA. But even if you believe that this type of play from Markkanen is sustainable all season, it’s hard to see the Jazz winning many games with the supporting cast playing at the level they did tonight.
Kyle Filipowski, Brice Sensabaugh, Walter Clayton Jr., Cody Williams, Jusuf Nurkic, Svi Mykhailiuk. and Ace Bailey combined for less points than Markkanen alone tonight, at 26. The Jazz simply need more than that.
That said, Keyonte George’s play remains a point of optimism. Tonight he finished 25 points and 7 assists, but most importantly, played active on defense. Last season, George’s four turnovers would have likely led to four negative defensive possessions. Tonight, it didn’t seem like those got to him, a testament to his work on this over the offseason.
Bailey vs. Knueppel
For the first time this season, we watched Ace Bailey match up with a fellow top-five pick, Kon Knueppel.
It’s pretty clear that Knueppel got the best out of this round. Charlotte’s fourth-overall pick finished the night with 24 points, six rebounds, and five assists on 53% shooting from the field. Bailey finished with six points on 3-8 shooting from the field.
Obviously, the two players are taking on vastly different roles to start their careers. Knueppel is a starter, playing over 35 minutes tonight. Bailey, on the other hand, only played 19 minutes off the bench, four of which were in garbage time.
There is a large chorus of Jazz fans who are probably frustrated that Bailey isn’t starting or getting more attention on the court. He’s a top-five pick and ostensibly the future of the franchise. After all, look at the Hornets; they are giving Knueppel the opportunity to prove why they drafted him so high and it’s paying off.
That said, I’m not sure Bailey is making a great case for himself to deserve many more minutes. Outside of the season opener, Bailey has minus-15 or more in every game. Tonight he had zero rebounds, took multiple shots outside of the offense, and made glaring defensive mistakes. He’s only six games into his career, so mistakes are expected. While there is a case that he should be allowed to play more through these mistakes, on such a young roster, opportunity must also be earned.
Defending the three
Young NBA teams typically struggle on defense. The Jazz are no different.
Through six games, the Jazz have defensive rating of 116.0. That slots them in as the ninth-worst in the NBA. Their biggest defensive problem comes from defending behind the arc.
The Jazz allow a league-most 47 threes a game. Unsurprisingly, they also allow a league-most 17.2 three-point makes per game. The eye test confirms this. Too often, Utah’s opponents get wide-open looks from simple drives to the basket. Utah’s defenders get caught defending neither the drive nor the three, stuck in defensive waste land.
Sure, part of that comes down to defensive effort. Sometimes players are standing flat footed or out of defensive stance. But frankly, a lot of it boils down to a number of Utah’s players not understanding the right rotation, biting on pass and shot fakes, and navigating on-ball screens poorly, leading to breakdowns in the defense and allowing open shots. Watching how this develops through the season will be a bellwether of how the Jazz grow on that end this season.
