Now hunted, the Utah Jazz fall to the Miami Heat 124-116

“They played different covers – they played the zone, they covered, they blitzed, they changed. They did it all.

And with that singular post-game statement, Donovan Mitchell not only summed up the Utah Jazz’s main problem in Friday’s 124-116 loss to the Miami Heat, but also the main problem they are bound to be. meet opponents in the future.

As NBA analyst and former assistant coach Steve Jones Jr. noted on social media following a game that brought Utah down to 26-7 this season, “Multiple covers are the key these days. ”

Many different looks have been tried against the Jazz this year in an attempt to find a way to somehow slow down both their record 3 point barrage and their ability to attack paint. Opponents have often resorted to a simple change, although Utah mostly understood this. Some teams are now fully committed to getting them off the line – only to get destroyed by dribbling penetration and lobs.

Typically, when an opponent comes up with a new look, the Jazz needs a little bit of playing time to sort it out before they acclimatize as they play and exploit it once they get it. understood it completely.

If you give the Jazz but a defensive look in a game, it takes a little time for them to adjust, but they end up exploiting it. The Heat were able to switch smoothly between covers on Friday night, and the Jazz spent the entire game adjusting.

And as a result, their execution suffered: 40 out of 94 in the field (42.6%) and 15 out of 46 out of 3 points (32.6%). Not to mention management, but 22 points on a 7 for 24 shot in the fourth quarter of a rare close game.

“The way we want to play, we need everyone to be very specific in what they’re doing. We have to pass the ball at the right time, we have to shoot when we are open, we have to be very well spaced, ”said coach Quin Snyder. “Our execution on the offensive side, with all these little things, was not as good. … Tonight we dribbled too long, we didn’t shoot when we should, we didn’t have good spacing – a lot of little things we need to do better.

Several of Snyder’s players specifically pointed to spacing as the main culprit, how Miami’s ever-changing rosters constantly put jazz players in the wrong places.

“Tonight, whether we weren’t running around the corner or sacrificing each other to get into space, we weren’t able to create lanes for the guys to drive and make those extra plays and assists, ”said Mike Conley, who 14 points and seven assists but only shot 6 of 15 overall and 2 of 7 deep. “And it kind of took us out of our rhythm.”

Mitchell, who contributed 30 points and six rebounds but shot 11 of 26 and 2 of 9, and had just three assists against five turnovers, went further.

“The spacing was huge. … There are times when Royce [O’Neale] will lead and I’m standing right there beside him, instead of going around the corner so he has a way. Or vice versa. Where I drive and Rudy [Gobert]stands there. Or I should hit Rudy on a pass, ”Mitchell said. “Little things like that that we didn’t perform in the game.”

Mitchell and Gobert both lamented Utah’s lack of transition attack, rightly pointing out that improving their meager six-point quick break could have prevented the Heat from putting up such effective defenses: ” I don’t think we’ve done a lot, “Gobert noted sarcastically,” Maybe because we haven’t had a lot of stops. “

With the Heat’s success against the Jazz on Friday, future opponents are bound to employ a similar strategy.

The good news for Jazz, however, said Conley, is that there is nothing about these covers that they haven’t seen and haven’t adapted to before. The key now is just to make these adaptations happen faster.

“They changed a lot of our actions, and the teams did that throughout the year, and we adjusted and we made plays around that,” Conley said. “So you give them credit – but we also have enormous control to be able to dictate these situations.”