Coming off their best offensive performance of the season, the Utah Jazz will take on the Atlanta Hawks minus Trae Young. On top of missing their star guard, the Hawks will be playing on the back end of a back to back on the road.
It’s a bit of a trap game for the Hawks who will be tested by a potentially potent Utah Jazz offense. If we’ve learned one thing this season, if you don’t bring it defensively against the Jazz they will put up points. Utah has 4 wins this season but two of them came against teams
that either didn’t try defensively (Clippers) or are flat out not good (Pacers). The thing about this Hawks team is they have young, athletic, defensive minded talent that can possibly hold up against the Jazz offensive potential. On top of that defensive potential they also have Kristaps Porzingis protecting the rim that makes that a strong potential for good defense. Finally, they don’t have Trae Young playing which eliminates any defensive issues.
For Utah, their defensive problems are showing up more and more. With Walker Kessler out they have a huge gap in rim protection for the team. They also are running out Lauri Markkanen as their point of attack on offense. The problem? He’s terrible defensively and teams are starting to really take advantage of him on that end. With Taylor Hendricks out for injury now also, who is the player that can actually defend at a high level with this offense? The answer is likely Ace Bailey but that’s a tough ask for a rookie and it won’t lead to tons of wins. But that’s probably the point.
At least it should be the point. Utah is at 4-7 now and sitting at 10th in the lottery order. If they don’t get bottom 8 on draft night, they lose their pick completely and it goes to the Oklahoma City Thunder. It would be a disastrous result for a team on, at best, a 36-win pace. That’s management malpractice if the Jazz let that happen. Yes they could win the lottery, but ensuring a top-8 pick with a low end record is the right choice for this team going forward. Utah has some nice young pieces and Lauri Markkanen right now but they are in desperate need of more elite talent. The good news is this draft is full of great talent and if the Jazz get lucky they could find themselves with a franchise guy to pair with Ace Bailey and Keyonte George. It’s just time to make the tough decisions to make it happen.
Start time and Channel
When: Thursday, November 13th – 9:00 PM ET (7:00 PM MT)
Where: Delta Center, Salt lake City, UT
Channel: KJZZ, JAZZ+
Mandatory Highlight
He won’t be playing tonight but I did want to mention that the Jazz had an absolutely insane ending last season that ended with a Trae Young buzzer beater. We’ll see if this one comes down to this again.
This was an insane finish and was instrumental in the Jazz getting Ace Bailey.
