Jazz HC Won't Use Kelly Olynyk as Excuse for Ugly Cavs Loss
The Utah Jazz are licking their wounds after losing two in a row to a pair of Eastern Conference defensive juggernauts. Monday night's loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers saw the Jazz get bruised and bullied by a significantly bigger and more physical opponent.
It didn't help that Jazz forward Kelly Olynyk wasn't available for the game in Cleveland, but head coach Will Hardy isn't making any excuses for his team's less-than-stellar performance.
“Kelly’s a big part of our team," Hardy said post-game. "He’s a very versatile player. He presents a matchup problem in a lot of ways because small guys struggle with his size and the bigger guys tend to struggle with the fact that he can space the floor and he’s very skilled... I think it’s always nice when he plays but in no way am I looking at this game, or our staff will look at his game and say, ‘Oh, well, If we’d had Kelly, it would have been different.’ We have to approach the game with who we have and try to learn from it.”
Cavs center Jarrett Allen put on a clinic for Jazz rookie Walker Kessler, who's been very impressive for Utah early on this season. But the physical veteran showed him how the NBA sausage really gets made in the paint.
"I think their physicality around the basket bothered us," Hardy said. "I think we’ve talked about Walker continuing to grow in those areas when he’s on the ball. I thought there were some plays where Jarrett Allen was really physical and kind of pushed him out of the way and was able to finish."
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Allen finished with 20 points, 11 rebounds, and three blocked shots, while Kessler totaled 11 points, six boards, and two blocks. Make no mistake, though, Cleveland's 122-99 blowout win over the Jazz can't be laid at the rookie's feet.
The Cavs had their way with the Jazz in just about every way possible, whether it was inside, in transition, or stroking every good-look shot they took. Utah played hard but simply didn't have the answers in a 'revenge' game where Donovan Mitchell only had to play 22 minutes to get 23 points.
"They have very talented players. Donovan [Mitchell]’s an incredible player, Darius [Garland] is an incredible player, Cedi Osman had an amazing game shooting the ball," Hardy said. "So again, it felt worse than maybe it actually is—I’ll have to go back and watch the film. But our physicality on the ball just wasn’t good enough. If you let good players like that get into a rhythm, you leave yourself susceptible to them hitting tough ones after they’ve seen a few go in, which I think happened tonight. I’m more concerned with the physicality around the basket than I am the jump shots that were made. And I think as a team, we have to continue to grow in that area. I mention Walker, but it’s not just about Walker—it’s about our whole team. We have to continue to improve in those physical aspects of our defense."
Lauri Markkanen led all scorers with 24 points, while the Jazz featured just three total double-digit scorers (welp!). Jordan Clarkson and the aforementioned Walker round out Utah's trio of scorers to reach double figures.
The Jazz now hover perilously close to .500, sitting at 17-16. It's good for the No. 9 seed in the Western Conference.
Utah's scoring struggles on this road trip could be a flash in the pan as Coach Hardy reminded everyone that there's a reason the Jazz have been a top-5 offense for most of this season. Even without a 'star' player, this too shall pass for the Jazz, so long as they snap this slump of missing wide-open looks and get back to doing what they've done best all season long.
"You can miss good looks and you can not have the attention to the details offensively," Hardy said, "and I think that these last two games, when teams have a significant size advantage on us, we really have to be more cognizant of the little things to help each other create good shots because we don’t have one player that we rely on to break the defense down on their own. We have to help each other generate good shots. For the majority of the season, we’ve done that, and that’s why our offense has been top-5 in the NBA. But we can’t have slippage in those areas after we play a couple of good games and then you go up against good defenses.”
It's back to the drawing board for the Jazz, as Hardy's squad finishes its three-game road trip with a tilt at the Detroit Pistons on Tuesday night, which will be followed by a return home to handle the Washington Wizards on Thursday. Per The Deseret News' Sarah Todd, the Jazz will be without Olynyk in Detroit.
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