This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Washington • The Utah Jazz will play the Boston Celtics on Friday night at Vivint Smart Home Arena. They will have 48 minutes to battle Brad Stevens and his crew and get back into the win column.
That ability to look ahead may be the only good thing to come out of Thursday night's matchup against the Washington Wizards.
In short, Utah suffered a 103-89 beating before 12,415 at the Verizon Center. If it sounds like a clunker, it certainly was. The Jazz can't point to any one facet of Thursday night's game and say they played well. They turned the ball over. They shot poorly. They defended poorly, and they turned the ball over some more.
It's one of those games coaches like to move on from swiftly. The Jazz will have that chance, playing the Celtics less than 24 hours later.
"We had a very poor game," Utah coach Quin Snyder said. "I don't know if it was rhythm or what, but we played very poorly. We were careless, Washington applied a lot of pressure, they were aggressive. We were forced to make plays and we didn't make them."
The Jazz scored the first two baskets of the game and steadily went downhill from that point. At its apex, the Wizards led by as many as 19 points. They used a 12-2 run to start the second half in order to build a 61-44 edge and effectively end the game.
Utah tried to stay in contact, but each run the Jazz mustered was swiftly turned away by John Wall and Co. On this night, the Wizards were too fast, too physical, too strong defensively and too efficient with the ball for Utah to have much of a chance.
"This isn't a good start for us after the all-star break," Jazz forward Gordon Hayward said. "We didn't execute what we wanted to do. We had too many turnovers, and they had too many fast-break points. That's who they are. They push the ball and we kind of just played right into their hands. It was poor execution."
So why did Thursday night happen? In a word, turnovers.
A season-high 23 miscues were converted for 27 Wizards points. And the Jazz did it impressively. They botched transition opportunities. They dropped easy passes. They sailed passes out of bounds. Ballhandlers allowed themselves to be stripped cleanly more than once.
And Wall took advantage of it all, scoring 17 points, handing out 11 assists and grabbing six rebounds. On the interior, Nene and Marcin Gortat surprising had their way against Derrick Favors and Rudy Gobert, combining for 38 points, many of them on easy looks at the hoop.
On this night, the Jazz couldn't keep pace. They couldn't effectively run their offense, because Wall disrupted everything. They couldn't keep Washington's guards out of the lane, which led to a bunch of open jumpers for the Wizards.
"Disrupting was the key," Wall said. "We know they wanted to play with flow, like running plays and moving the ball from side to side. We just did a great job of taking them out of their rhythm tonight, and they started running plays they probably haven't run all year."
Gobert scored 16 points and grabbed 12 rebounds for the Jazz, while Hayward scored 19 and Rodney Hood came up with 18. But in truth, other then Gobert, nobody played well for Utah.
"We turned the ball over 23 times," Snyder said. "Any time you do that, you're not going to win, especially against a team that can convert like that. We hung around for a while, but every time we would get close, we'd turn the ball over and they'd hit a three."
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Storylines
R The Wizards finished the game with a 34-10 advantage in fast break points, the 21st consecutive game they've led in that category.
• The Jazz were outscored 54-28 in the paint.
• After seven consecutive wins, Utah's lost two straight games.
Celtics at Jazz
P At Vivint Smart Home Arena
Friday, 8:30 p.m.
TV • ESPN