The J-Notes
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Jazz struggle in 98-92 Loss Vs Atlanta

By Spencer

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Jan 2, 2015; Salt Lake City, UT, USA; Atlanta Hawks guard Jeff Teague (0) gets past Utah Jazz guard Dante Exum (11) and goes to the basket during the third quarter at EnergySolutions Arena. Atlanta Hawks won the game 98-92. Mandatory Credit: Chris Nicoll-USA TODAY Sports

This game was not as close as it appears when you look at the final score.  The red hot Atlanta Hawks were 17-3 over the last 20 games coming into tonights matchup.  The Utah Jazz had been playing at an improved rate going 5-2 in their last seven game.

The good news is that the Jazz played wonderful defense.  Atlanta shoots 46.8% from the field and 37.2% from three.  The Jazz were able to hold them to 40.7% from the field and 26.1% from three.  It was apparent that the game plan for the Jazz on defense was to shut down Paul Millsap and Al Horford.  They wanted other players to beat them.  Millsap went 2-11 for 15 points and Horford went 6-13 for 13 points.  Unfortunately for the Jazz, Jeff Teague stepped up to the plate and scored 26 points.

That was about it as far as good news goes for the Jazz.  With Alec Burks out for the season Rodney Hood was supposed to get the start.  This is where the bad news began piling on for the Jazz.

Rodney Hood was ruled out, so new Jazz man Patrick Christopher got the start.  He started out strong, but suffered this disturbing knee injury about six minutes in to the first quarter.

The Utah Jazz announced it was a dislocated knee cap.  This injury is not a good one to have.  This is really a bummer for Patrick as he finally got a wonderful opportunity.  There is no word yet on the heal time, but it is increasingly plausible that the Jazz could waive Patrick as they are very thin at the wing position now.

As if those injuries weren’t bad enough, Enes Kanter rolled his ankle and was declared out for the game.  All three players have already been declared out for tomorrow’s rematch versus the Timberwolves.

The Utah Jazz seem to have bitten by the injury bug.  Though Jazz players continued to fall to injury, the game had to go on.  The Jazz were outscored by the Hawks in the first three quarters.  Jeff Teague picked the team apart and Trey Burke could not stop him.  The worst part about watching Trey defend Teague tonight was in the pick-n-roll.  Trey could not get over screens and when he went under Teague made him pay.  This is the single biggest issue with Trey’s game right now.  He has to improve his pick-n-roll defense if he wants to continue to be a starting point guard in this league.

Speaking of Trey Burke, he had possibly the worst offensive game of his career tonight.  Trey went 2-19 from the field in this match.  Trey Burke leading the team in field goal attempts is likely not ideal on most nights, especially when he cant buy a bucket.  If only we could give Dante Exum some of Trey’s confidence in his own shot, right?  This was unfortunate to watch as Trey was stellar in the Jazz’s last game against the Timberwolves.

Rudy Gobert, Dante Exum, and Joe Ingles led the team in +/- tonight, and you could see the difference they made.  Rudy padded the stats with 11 points, seven rebounds, four blocks, and an assist.  The kid is getting better every single game.  He makes adjustments quicker than most players.  Rudy has also embraced the Jazz’s challenge for the bigs to be passing bigs.  He is learning when to pass out of the post.

Dante Exum had a pretty good night as well.  The Hawks dared Exum to shoot, and he made them pay.  Exum went 5-9 for 13 points.  The native Australian was able to add two assists, two rebounds, and 3 steals on the night.  He is much further along than anyone could has anticipated at this point.  No one would have guessed that Exum would be shooting 33.3% from three in his rookie year.

Both

Gordon Hayward

and

Derrick Favors

had decent, not great games.  Gordon went 6-14 from the field and had 18 points, three rebounds, and three assists.  Though he had a mediocre night, he did have this awesome dunk!

Derrick Favors wasn’t able to get it going offensively, but he had a great impact on the defensive end of the game.  Favors came up huge with two big fourth quarter defensive rebounds.  Though, we saw Derrick Favors’ free throw issues return as he missed two free throw attempts in the fourth quarter.

You can find the full boxscore here.

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