This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2017, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
The indictment of Utah's offense was sweeping.
Jazz players and coaches said nothing went right in the wake of Wednesday's 107-80 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves. The screening was bad. The ballhandling was shoddy. There was too much one-on-one play.
All of which led to an awful 3-point shooting evening. Utah went 4 of 19 from beyond the arc, many of those open shots that clanged off the rim, against a Minnesota team that surrendered 142 points to the Houston Rockets four nights prior to Wednesday.
"Our shooting is sometimes a barometer for us, and it shouldn't be that way," Jazz guard Joe Ingles said. "But tonight, the shooting was a big part of it. But we didn't do anything right. We got beat in every aspect."
Wednesday's home defeat proved disturbing in its entirety. Most of all, when the Jazz didn't make open shots, their game suffered in other areas. And that led to one of the poorest offensive performances of the season.
Usually, the Jazz are solid from 3-point land. Ingles, along with George Hill and Gordon Hayward, provide a trio that can get hot from the perimeter. Joe Johnson and Alec Burks are proficient from outside as well. Usually, one player from that group — plus Rodney Hood — finds a way to get hot.
None of that happened against the Timberwolves. Ingles and Hayward went a combined 2 of 9 from three. Johnson, Burks and Hill went 0 for 4. Dante Exum, a 27-percent shooter from the perimeter, led the Jazz with two 3-pointers. It was that kind of night.
"We really didn't do much tonight," Hayward said. "We had an emotional loss last night (to the Oklahoma City Thunder). But we've got to find energy and we didn't do that."
The 3-point shooting was bad in itself. But the Jazz didn't find a way to score points in other areas, and that was the death knell. Utah shot 38 percent from the field overall and got to the free-throw line just 11 times. They committed 14 turnovers.
The missed shots killed offensive spacing, as lanes into the pain were closed. All of that highlighted Utah's inability to make open looks from the perimeter, which caused the Jazz's most lopsided loss of the Quin Snyder era.
"You have games like this, and hopefully they're few and far between," Snyder said.
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