Quin Snyder isn’t going to overly criticize his Utah Jazz for recent losses to the Atlanta Hawks and Boston Celtics. He knows his team had been winning a lot of games and they were bound to drop a few close ones.
At the same time, he has addressed some concerns over the last two days.
His team isn’t rebounding enough defensively, which became a hot topic in a Thursday morning film session. His team isn’t executing at a high enough level at the end of games, and it’s something he knows the Jazz need to clean up as the regular season has a little less than two weeks to go.
“There are always things that we can do better,” Snyder said. “We had a play late against Boston that was a zone play, and they played a zone, and we didn’t execute in that. We had a similar situation against San Antonio where we executed great down the stretch offensively, but it was kind of for naught because we couldn’t get a defensive rebound.”
The Jazz were flummoxed by Boston’s switching defense in their loss to the Celtics. They played like a favorite who didn’t want to suffer a loss to an inferior team against the Hawks.
It’s difficult to nitpick the Jazz after their prolonged run through the Western Conference after Jan. 22. Heading into Friday’s matchup against the Memphis Grizzlies, Utah’s won 23 of 28 games.
But, now that the Jazz are in position to steal a playoff berth, Snyder wants to stay there. Snyder has impressed upon his team the gravity of every play and every possession in this stretch run. And attention to detail is likely the difference between a win and loss on many nights.
“I think they are all a little bit must-wins,” Snyder said. “In this race, you essentially have to try to win out. My hope is we need to do a little bit more in certain aspects of the game.”
Last-minute malady
Jazz starting point guard Ricky Rubio missed Friday night’s matchup against the Memphis Grizzlies with a sore hamstring.
Rubio was originally in the starting lineup, but was a late scratch after pregame warmups. He was replaced by rookie Royce O’Neale, who scored seven points in the first half, all in the first quarter. Jazz point guard Dante Exum saw extended minutes off the bench as well. Friday marked O’Neale’s second career start.
Family time
The Jazz played against Memphis point guard Marquis Teague on Friday night. On Sunday, against the Minnesota Timberwolves, the Jazz will see Teague’s older brother Jeff, who is Minnesota’s starting point guard.
