New York • Utah Jazz coach Quin Snyder said Friday night’s 118-107 loss to the Brooklyn Nets comes with a little realism.
They faced the Nets at the Barclays Center without Ricky Rubio and Thabo Sefolosha. They are learning defensive survival without Rudy Gobert. They continue to miss Joe Johnson and Dante Exum.
An NBA team playing without five of its top nine rotation guys is bound to have tough nights, even against the Brooklyn Nets. Still, there were too many defensive breakdowns leading to wide-open Brooklyn shooters. The defense overall proved too porous, and the Nets took control midway through the first quarter and the Jazz never threatened.
“It’s not an excuse,” Snyder said. “But our team has to realize that in those moments your margin for error is smaller. We have to do more things. Tonight, we had some breakdowns defensively. It wasn’t like we were awful. But Brooklyn made plays and we just needed to do more.”
The Jazz are a frustrated bunch. In the moments following their seventh loss of the past eight games, heads were down in the locker room. Small forward Joe Ingles cursed audibly when asked about Utah’s collective feeling. Players spoke of figuring out ways to get one win, any way it can come.
“It’s like we can’t seem to get over the hump,” shooting guard Rodney Hood said.
Said Ingles: “It’s not like we’re not playing hard. We’re practicing hard. We’re playing our asses off.”
The core of this Jazz team is used to winning. Last season brought 51 of them, a Northwest Division title and a playoff run that led to a Western Conference semifinal appearance.
But, with Friday night’s loss, the Jazz train is derailing from the tracks. Without Gobert, one of the best defenders in the league, the Jazz are stuck trying to defend without their anchor in the middle.
It’s not going well.
The Nets shot a season-high 50.6 percent from the field Friday night, swishing a plethora of open looks. They scored 39 points in that deciding first quarter, which is the most they’ve scored in any quarter all season.
Brooklyn played without D’Angelo Russell, its best player and one of the more dynamic young point guards in the league. His absence didn’t matter because Spencer Dinwiddie scored a career-high 25 points on a career-high six made 3-pointers. The Nets recorded 27 assists, which ties a season high.
They simply had their best offensive game of the season at Utah’s expense.
“I think at the beginning of the game, we weren’t as aggressive defensively as we needed to be,” Snyder said. “Brooklyn made some shots, but I felt like we could’ve done more on the defensive end to make that hard for them.”
The numbers overall are starting to get ugly for the Jazz. They are 6-10 on the season and 0-6 on the road. They are the only team in the league without a road win and their only victory in the last few weeks has come against the Nets.
Friday marked rookie Donovan Mitchell’s first start as a point guard, as Rubio sat the game with a sore Achilles. Mitchell scored 15 points, handed out eight assists and grabbed seven rebounds. At the same time, he was directly responsible for a portion of Dinwiddie’s great game.
Utah put five players in double-figures, as Raul Neto came off the bench and scored a career-high 22 points. Hood scored 17 points. Joe Ingles and Derrick Favors scored 15 points each.
But defense has been an ugly truth for the Jazz. Until they start stopping people, they are going to have issues winning games. They’ve surrendered at least 100 points in eight of the last nine games. And with Friday’s loss, the rest of the current road trip features a much-improved Orlando Magic team on Saturday and a talented Philadelphia 76ers team on Monday.
Translation: This can get worse, if the Jazz don’t get better.
“Obviously, right now we’re battling with whatever healthy guys we have and just trying to do whatever to get a win,” Ingles said. “I’m just sick of losing.”
Follow @Tjonessltrib