This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated.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.
The Utah Jazz knew what Miami Heat point guard Goran Dragic was planning to do on Thursday night: Get to the basket and either score at the rim or set up teammates for easy baskets.
"He's a huge part of what the Miami Heat do," Jazz coach Quin Snyder said before Utah's 111-110 loss to the Heat at Vivint Smart Home Arena.
Fast forward to postgame. The Jazz were disappointed in their defense as a whole. But they were particularly upset about their lack of defense on Dragic, who did whatever he wanted in leading the Heat to a win they probably had no business getting, given that they were playing on a back-to-back and missing multiple players due to injury.
"We were a little soft defensively at the beginning of the game," said Snyder.
Dragic repeatedly found his way to the basket and scored. He dropped a team-high 27 points and added six assists. He grabbed four rebounds and made two of three from beyond the 3-point arc. He played 36 minutes of near flawless basketball, shooting 10 of 21 from the field. He did the most damage in the fourth quarter, scoring 14 of those points on 5 of 8 shooting.
Utah knows it's easy to point to George Hill, who was absent due to a sprained toe and chalk up the loss to missing his presence. And that would be a good explanation, as Hill's been one of the best defenders on the team.
But Snyder after the game said his team lacked defensive competitiveness until the final five minutes. Players backed that assertion in the locker room.
"He's a good penetrator and we knew that," Utah forward Joe Johnson said. "Not only was he getting into the paint tonight, he was knocking down jumpers. And anytime he does that, he's really tough to guard. We were disappointed in the fact that they got so many offensive rebounds at key moments. That really hurt us tonight."
Without Hill, the Jazz were badly outplayed at the point guard spot. Snyder started Dante Exum. He played Shelvin Mack, and Raul Neto saw extended minutes for one of the first times this season.
Mack played well, scoring 11 points, grabbing five rebounds and handing out five assists in 32 minutes. But Exum went 1 of 6 from the field, and turned the ball over four times. Neto was shaky in his first stint of the night, but came back and hit a big 3-pointer down the stretch.
"We knew how they wanted to play tonight," Utah forward Joe Ingles said. "We knew they wanted to attack the rim. We just couldn't get stops. We had no problem offensively. But defensively, we just have to be way better than we were tonight."
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