Jazz will get a true test of their progress when high-flying Rockets visit Monday

A rare home back-to-back this weekend produced a split with the Portland Trail Blazers and the Dallas Mavericks, in which nothing came easy for the Utah Jazz. Portland, led by Damian Lillard, dominated from the opening possession. It took until the closing possessions for the Jazz to put away an 18-42 Mavericks team.

Clearly, the Jazz have lost a step since the all-star break. The offense hasn’t been as crisp. The defense, save for the last four minutes against Dallas on Saturday night, hasn’t been as resistant. And the shooting, such a strength over the last three weeks, has been wayward.

In truth, the slide in play started before the break for the Jazz. They had to execute a history fourth quarter comeback to beat the San Antonio Spurs. They labored until the very end to beat the Phoenix Suns, and Friday night’s Portland loss was alarming on several levels.

At the end of the day, the Jazz have still won 12 of their last 13 games. But, as they prepare to face the Houston Rockets on Monday night, and the Minnesota Timberwolves next Friday, Utah knows it has some growing to do. The Jazz simply need to recapture the rhythm that allowed them to win the bulk of 11 consecutive games.

“We were fortunate to beat San Antonio,” Jazz coach Quin Snyder said. “But that goes down as a win. This (Saturday night) was a similar type game. It was a dog fight. The Phoenix game was a dog fight and a lot of these games are going to be like this. Growth is never just linear. It’s always one step, two steps, three steps.”

The question is how do the Jazz get the groove back that allowed them to blow through the Blazers, the Golden State Warriors, the New Orleans Pelicans and the Suns?

At the height of their winning streak, Utah scored at least 120 points four times. They put up 115 points two weeks ago in Portland, and they scored over 100 points in eight of the 11 games.

On paper, the major areas for drop-off are obvious. They were a hot 3-point shooting team, but that’s cooled off considerably in the last four games. And if the Jazz aren’t making threes, their offense suffers significantly.

Utah’s also turning the ball over more frequently than it had in the meat of the streak. This includes 19 miscues against Portland on Friday, a big reason the Jazz never led the Trail Blazers.

The Jazz only turned the ball over 11 times against Dallas. But they shot just 9-of-32 from 3-point range, and just 40 percent from the field overall. They scored 35 points in the first quarter against the Mavericks, but just 62 points for the remainder of the game.

Much of this coincides with point guard Ricky Rubio, who missed most of three games with a hip contusion. At the height of the winning streak, Rubio was playing at an all-star level. The offense hasn’t been as crisp without him making shots and setting up his teammates.

“I definitely think there’s some rust from the all-star break,” Utah forward Derrick Favors said. “But it’s easy to fix. We have to improve on communication, on both ends of the floor. We have to improve on little things. But all of our issues, they are easy to fix.”

On multiple levels, Utah’s drop-off in shooting is predictable. After all, it’s difficult to score 120 points in every game. In that sense, the Jazz being able to beat the Mavericks by clamping down defensively in the last five minutes on Saturday night represented a step in the right direction.

Against Portland, the Jazz weren’t able to contain Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum when it mattered. Utah was able to do that against a quick quartet of Dallas guards during the most important possessions of the game.

And that’s why the Jazz were able to end Saturday night on a 12-3 run and leave Vivint Smart Home Arena with a win. But the schedule doesn’t get any easier. The Rockets, led by MVP candidate James Harden, are one of the top two teams in the NBA. Minnesota is currently in the third spot in the Western Conference.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do,” Utah center Rudy Gobert said. “The good thing is we competed and worked hard, so that’s a good sign. As long as we keep competing, the shots will fall.”