Finally a new starting lineup! Keyonte got his first start, along with Agbaji, Clarkson, Markkanen, and Collins. Kessler was listed as out prior to tipoff.
The Pacers feasted inside the paint. A lack of solid rim protection made it easy for them to get any shot they wanted. Miles Turner dropped 20 points in the first half, going against Markkanen, Collins, and Olynyk. The Pacers finished with 74 points in the paint tonight. We really missed Kessler inside. We were outmatched down low. He allowed the Pacers to shoot 51.5% from the field tonight.
Lauri Markkanen had just 1 FGA for 18 straight minutes in the 3rd quarter until midway in the 4th.. He did get fouled on jumpers, and on drives, but as far as the statsheet is concerned, he shot 1 time. Yes, the Pacers did a good job of denying him his shots, but good coaches find a way to get the best player the ball. He finished with 24 points, 8-16 from the floor, 3-5 from 3, with 9 rebounds (5 offensive!) in 34 minutes. We need to get him going more consistently. I am sure the lack of good gauard play has made it really tough for Lauri to get comfortable looks. I want him to demand the ball a bit more.
Keyonte Looked great tonight. Although his shot isn’t falling at the rate he’d like it to, 9 assists to just 1 turnover in 30 minutes tonight, to go with 7 points. He was 3-8, 1-3 from 3 to go with 2 rebounds. 9 ASSISTS TO 1 TURNOVER! If he doesn’t start the rest of the year I will be shocked. It’s obvious this team isn’t going for a play-in spot, so might as well let him take the reigns on this offense.
Clarkson returned to scoring form tonight with 33 points in 34 minutes. 12-26 shooting though isn’t pretty, but at least he was getting his. 1-3 from 3, 8-8 from the free throw line, but 5 assists, 6 turnovers. It’s JC doing JC things. Live by JC, die by JC…
The other JC, John Collins looked good. 14 points 9 rebounds. He is filling his role perfectly, although again I’d love to see him get more involved. The more shots that he takes means the more assists that our guards get (and the less shots THT/Sexton/Clarkson takes). Nothing to complain about tonight though, I thought he was good. He did get into foul trouble early on, but was good the second half at not fouling.
Agbaji is invisible out there. 3 points, 1-3 shooting (all from 3). 4 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 block, 3 turnovers. He was only a -3 in his 25 minutes, which is tied for second best on the team tonight. He just doesn’t get involved in this offense. I don’t know if we aren’t using him right, or if this is the type of player he is.
THT off the bench shot 3-8 for 6 points, 5 assists, 4 rebounds, 4 turnovers. He was the best on the team in terms of +/-, going +2 in his 20 minutes. He doesn’t look more controlled when he drives, or on his passes.
Kris Dunn is out of Hardy’s doghouse, as he played 12 minutes tonight. 7 points, 3-5 shooting, 1-1 from deep with 2 assists, 4 rebounds and a -3 in 12 minutes. He was the second best PG tonight, and I would like to see him have more than just 12 minutes, or DNP-CD. It’ll be interesting to see if this changes in the future.
Sexton just looked to score. 16 minutes, 9 shots (3-9 shooting), 1-2 from 3. 10 points, 2 rebounds, 2 assists. I’m really disappointed in what Sexton has shown. Yes, he missed the last half of last year with a hammy issue, and so this is just his 10th NBA game since February, but he is better than this. I don’t want to believe that this is his regression, but he isn’t proving me wrong.
Fontecchio was our best player off the bench, coming in and hitting a few 3’s in the second quarter. He had 10 points, 5 rebounds on 4-8 shooting, 2-5 from 3. He gets killed defensively (a la Kyle Korver), so I want to see him improve. He is a weird height/weight to be down low on the block defensively, but too large to play on the wing and perimeter.
Olynyk didn’t impress me tonight. I’d argue this was the worst game we’ve seen of him in a jazz uniform. 4 points, 2-4 shooting, 5 rebounds, 0 assists, 2 turnovers, 5 fouls in 21 minutes. -19. Not a fan of what I saw in Kelly tonight. He couldn’t stay out of foul trouble and when he was in, it was disrupting our offense.
No other rookies tonight. But, the Pacers didn’t play Jarace Walker either, so take that as you will.
Turnovers killed us. We got out to a hot start because we were the ones forcing turnovers, but that lasted like 8 minutes in the first quarter. The rest of the game we only forced 4 more turnovers, and instead we gave the ball up 18 times the last 3 quarters. It is so frustrating handing teams easy buckets, and even when they don’t score it just mentally beats down our guys.
Just something to think about, but how much of the blame goes on Hardy? I think Hardy is a good coach, but I wonder how many of our wins last season came from personnel like Beasley, Conley, and Vando. I highly doubt he is anywhere near the “hot seat”, but I am curious how much blame Hardy is getting for our turnovers and lack of identity.
2-7. Not a lot of bright spots outside of Lauri & Keyonte rn.
How much do y’all think it’ll take to get Desmond Bane lol
I liked how sexton and tht took turns ignoring Lauri throughout the second half
ok season is done, embrace the tank and do it properly this year. NBA purgatory doesn’t work for small markets and non FA markets
TankNote
I know the talk is all on Key but Ochai is a massive difference maker in this lineup and he should be a permanent inclusion. Just such good decision making, recovery defense. I sound like a broken record but he does so much that won’t get shown on the stat sheet
tbh I just hope Sexton and THT get fucking traded soon bro
If the season keeps going this way is there a chance we trade Lauri at the deadline for a Mitchell/Gobert like package and go full ground zero rebuild. Maybe the Magic for Anthony Black, Harris and 3 first round picks for Lauri and Fontecchio. Then draft someone like Alex Sarr. Not saying we should or i’d want to trade Lauri but hypothetically
The pacers shot 67% from 2 for the game. What the fuck are we doing
This is on Hardy, that lineup with the bunch of guards with Lauri killed everything. It exhausted Lauri that he even cant get a chance to shot the ball becz with all the guards taking all the shots while him trying to get the boards. Its a bad rotation even they have tied the game but in the other end after a minute they got blownout. He could have used Yurt7 in some point so Lauri can focus on his shots. THT + Sexton is a recipe for disaster specially when you play them with your best player who supposed to be taking more shots
Someone needs to remind the front office we can’t tank for Wemby this year.
Post Game Thoughts:
It was a good fight against the best offense in the league. We just aren’t good enough yet, that’s okay. Some good improvements tonight though.
Our defense has been just unacceptably bad under Will Hardy so far. Losing Kessler is a big blow but our defense was bad with him this year still. Our small ball switching defense got picked apart by Haliburton & their centers dominated us inside. Something needs to change. I need to see some type of improvement on this end soon, we can’t give up 120+ every night and have a chance.
Coach Hardy made some much needed starting lineup changes.Starting Keyonte seemed to free up Clarkson. Collins also seemed to play better with the space. Agbaji makes some great off ball decisions on offense, but struggled with turnovers. We had some promising stretches with that starting group.
Clarkson had a good scoring night, but still is averaging like 5 turnovers a game currently. He’s got to make some better decisions with the ball and trust Lauri & Keyonte more.
Keyonte had a good debut in the starting lineup tonight. 9 assists to 1 turnover is awesome. Had a couple of rookie mistakes. I hope he starts looking for his shot more as he gets more comfortable, he has a great 1st step to get to the rim, I think his shooting motion is great and the shots will fall in time.
That Sexton, THT, Dunn , Lauri lineup was awful. They barely passed the ball to Lauri. And we watched Sexton & THT take turns at turning the ball over.
THT & Sexton displayed every single reason why Hardy finally decided to start Keyonte over them tonight. Those 2 make some of the most boneheaded mistakes I’ve ever watched. I watched them take turns at iso instead of passing the ball to Lauri to start the 4th… They seem to refuse to learn how to play unselfish basketball and make better decisions consistently, I hope Ainge is shopping them for trades ASAP.
Lauri Markkanen is so damn good at basketball. I pray we can keep building around him. But he deserves more help than this. I can tell how exhausted he is already.
Regarding major scheme adjustments, I think we should realize this team hasn’t had a practice day yet since the season started. We have yet to have 2 consecutive days off, and will finally be getting some after Friday. It’s honestly kind of been crazy.
Why is Yurtseven even signed if he plays 0 minutes in a game like this? I know almost nothing about him and his game, but Lauri was getting killed defensively in the paint and Olynyk had a really bad game overall
The Jazz’s W/L trajectory is basically mirroring that of my fantasy football team at this point.
I don’t care if clarkson had a big scoring night, he’s just a black hole trade him please.I want him gone even more than sexton and that’s saying something…
Will Hardy is on the hot seat for me.
Why the fuck is he so complacent with shitty hero ball? There’s only a handful of players in the league who should be given Clarkson’s green light– Jordan Clarkson isn’t close to one of them.
Why should opposing teams even gameplan? What is there to gameplan? Clarkson gets the ball, and he’s gonna take it. He’ll turn it over or brick it, more than he actually gets an assist or make.
There’s no gameplan. There’s no intelligence on this team, whatsoever.
Keyonte did his absolute best, and he did a great fucking job trying to get the ball moving, but it was not enough to overcome Clarksonball.
Shout out to the mods for using the nba box score! I love you!
Ladies, Gentlemen and Distinguished Non-Binaries.
It might be time to consider whether or not we are cursed.
19 comments
GAME NOTES:
Finally a new starting lineup! Keyonte got his first start, along with Agbaji, Clarkson, Markkanen, and Collins. Kessler was listed as out prior to tipoff.
The Pacers feasted inside the paint. A lack of solid rim protection made it easy for them to get any shot they wanted. Miles Turner dropped 20 points in the first half, going against Markkanen, Collins, and Olynyk. The Pacers finished with 74 points in the paint tonight. We really missed Kessler inside. We were outmatched down low. He allowed the Pacers to shoot 51.5% from the field tonight.
Lauri Markkanen had just 1 FGA for 18 straight minutes in the 3rd quarter until midway in the 4th.. He did get fouled on jumpers, and on drives, but as far as the statsheet is concerned, he shot 1 time. Yes, the Pacers did a good job of denying him his shots, but good coaches find a way to get the best player the ball. He finished with 24 points, 8-16 from the floor, 3-5 from 3, with 9 rebounds (5 offensive!) in 34 minutes. We need to get him going more consistently. I am sure the lack of good gauard play has made it really tough for Lauri to get comfortable looks. I want him to demand the ball a bit more.
Keyonte Looked great tonight. Although his shot isn’t falling at the rate he’d like it to, 9 assists to just 1 turnover in 30 minutes tonight, to go with 7 points. He was 3-8, 1-3 from 3 to go with 2 rebounds. 9 ASSISTS TO 1 TURNOVER! If he doesn’t start the rest of the year I will be shocked. It’s obvious this team isn’t going for a play-in spot, so might as well let him take the reigns on this offense.
Clarkson returned to scoring form tonight with 33 points in 34 minutes. 12-26 shooting though isn’t pretty, but at least he was getting his. 1-3 from 3, 8-8 from the free throw line, but 5 assists, 6 turnovers. It’s JC doing JC things. Live by JC, die by JC…
The other JC, John Collins looked good. 14 points 9 rebounds. He is filling his role perfectly, although again I’d love to see him get more involved. The more shots that he takes means the more assists that our guards get (and the less shots THT/Sexton/Clarkson takes). Nothing to complain about tonight though, I thought he was good. He did get into foul trouble early on, but was good the second half at not fouling.
Agbaji is invisible out there. 3 points, 1-3 shooting (all from 3). 4 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 block, 3 turnovers. He was only a -3 in his 25 minutes, which is tied for second best on the team tonight. He just doesn’t get involved in this offense. I don’t know if we aren’t using him right, or if this is the type of player he is.
THT off the bench shot 3-8 for 6 points, 5 assists, 4 rebounds, 4 turnovers. He was the best on the team in terms of +/-, going +2 in his 20 minutes. He doesn’t look more controlled when he drives, or on his passes.
Kris Dunn is out of Hardy’s doghouse, as he played 12 minutes tonight. 7 points, 3-5 shooting, 1-1 from deep with 2 assists, 4 rebounds and a -3 in 12 minutes. He was the second best PG tonight, and I would like to see him have more than just 12 minutes, or DNP-CD. It’ll be interesting to see if this changes in the future.
Sexton just looked to score. 16 minutes, 9 shots (3-9 shooting), 1-2 from 3. 10 points, 2 rebounds, 2 assists. I’m really disappointed in what Sexton has shown. Yes, he missed the last half of last year with a hammy issue, and so this is just his 10th NBA game since February, but he is better than this. I don’t want to believe that this is his regression, but he isn’t proving me wrong.
Fontecchio was our best player off the bench, coming in and hitting a few 3’s in the second quarter. He had 10 points, 5 rebounds on 4-8 shooting, 2-5 from 3. He gets killed defensively (a la Kyle Korver), so I want to see him improve. He is a weird height/weight to be down low on the block defensively, but too large to play on the wing and perimeter.
Olynyk didn’t impress me tonight. I’d argue this was the worst game we’ve seen of him in a jazz uniform. 4 points, 2-4 shooting, 5 rebounds, 0 assists, 2 turnovers, 5 fouls in 21 minutes. -19. Not a fan of what I saw in Kelly tonight. He couldn’t stay out of foul trouble and when he was in, it was disrupting our offense.
No other rookies tonight. But, the Pacers didn’t play Jarace Walker either, so take that as you will.
Turnovers killed us. We got out to a hot start because we were the ones forcing turnovers, but that lasted like 8 minutes in the first quarter. The rest of the game we only forced 4 more turnovers, and instead we gave the ball up 18 times the last 3 quarters. It is so frustrating handing teams easy buckets, and even when they don’t score it just mentally beats down our guys.
Just something to think about, but how much of the blame goes on Hardy? I think Hardy is a good coach, but I wonder how many of our wins last season came from personnel like Beasley, Conley, and Vando. I highly doubt he is anywhere near the “hot seat”, but I am curious how much blame Hardy is getting for our turnovers and lack of identity.
2-7. Not a lot of bright spots outside of Lauri & Keyonte rn.
How much do y’all think it’ll take to get Desmond Bane lol
I liked how sexton and tht took turns ignoring Lauri throughout the second half
ok season is done, embrace the tank and do it properly this year. NBA purgatory doesn’t work for small markets and non FA markets
TankNote
I know the talk is all on Key but Ochai is a massive difference maker in this lineup and he should be a permanent inclusion. Just such good decision making, recovery defense. I sound like a broken record but he does so much that won’t get shown on the stat sheet
tbh I just hope Sexton and THT get fucking traded soon bro
If the season keeps going this way is there a chance we trade Lauri at the deadline for a Mitchell/Gobert like package and go full ground zero rebuild. Maybe the Magic for Anthony Black, Harris and 3 first round picks for Lauri and Fontecchio. Then draft someone like Alex Sarr. Not saying we should or i’d want to trade Lauri but hypothetically
The pacers shot 67% from 2 for the game. What the fuck are we doing
This is on Hardy, that lineup with the bunch of guards with Lauri killed everything. It exhausted Lauri that he even cant get a chance to shot the ball becz with all the guards taking all the shots while him trying to get the boards. Its a bad rotation even they have tied the game but in the other end after a minute they got blownout. He could have used Yurt7 in some point so Lauri can focus on his shots. THT + Sexton is a recipe for disaster specially when you play them with your best player who supposed to be taking more shots
Someone needs to remind the front office we can’t tank for Wemby this year.
Post Game Thoughts:
It was a good fight against the best offense in the league. We just aren’t good enough yet, that’s okay. Some good improvements tonight though.
Our defense has been just unacceptably bad under Will Hardy so far. Losing Kessler is a big blow but our defense was bad with him this year still. Our small ball switching defense got picked apart by Haliburton & their centers dominated us inside. Something needs to change. I need to see some type of improvement on this end soon, we can’t give up 120+ every night and have a chance.
Coach Hardy made some much needed starting lineup changes.Starting Keyonte seemed to free up Clarkson. Collins also seemed to play better with the space. Agbaji makes some great off ball decisions on offense, but struggled with turnovers. We had some promising stretches with that starting group.
Clarkson had a good scoring night, but still is averaging like 5 turnovers a game currently. He’s got to make some better decisions with the ball and trust Lauri & Keyonte more.
Keyonte had a good debut in the starting lineup tonight. 9 assists to 1 turnover is awesome. Had a couple of rookie mistakes. I hope he starts looking for his shot more as he gets more comfortable, he has a great 1st step to get to the rim, I think his shooting motion is great and the shots will fall in time.
That Sexton, THT, Dunn , Lauri lineup was awful. They barely passed the ball to Lauri. And we watched Sexton & THT take turns at turning the ball over.
THT & Sexton displayed every single reason why Hardy finally decided to start Keyonte over them tonight. Those 2 make some of the most boneheaded mistakes I’ve ever watched. I watched them take turns at iso instead of passing the ball to Lauri to start the 4th… They seem to refuse to learn how to play unselfish basketball and make better decisions consistently, I hope Ainge is shopping them for trades ASAP.
Lauri Markkanen is so damn good at basketball. I pray we can keep building around him. But he deserves more help than this. I can tell how exhausted he is already.
Regarding major scheme adjustments, I think we should realize this team hasn’t had a practice day yet since the season started. We have yet to have 2 consecutive days off, and will finally be getting some after Friday. It’s honestly kind of been crazy.
Why is Yurtseven even signed if he plays 0 minutes in a game like this? I know almost nothing about him and his game, but Lauri was getting killed defensively in the paint and Olynyk had a really bad game overall
The Jazz’s W/L trajectory is basically mirroring that of my fantasy football team at this point.
I don’t care if clarkson had a big scoring night, he’s just a black hole trade him please.I want him gone even more than sexton and that’s saying something…
Will Hardy is on the hot seat for me.
Why the fuck is he so complacent with shitty hero ball? There’s only a handful of players in the league who should be given Clarkson’s green light– Jordan Clarkson isn’t close to one of them.
Why should opposing teams even gameplan? What is there to gameplan? Clarkson gets the ball, and he’s gonna take it. He’ll turn it over or brick it, more than he actually gets an assist or make.
There’s no gameplan. There’s no intelligence on this team, whatsoever.
Keyonte did his absolute best, and he did a great fucking job trying to get the ball moving, but it was not enough to overcome Clarksonball.
Shout out to the mods for using the nba box score! I love you!
Ladies, Gentlemen and Distinguished Non-Binaries.
It might be time to consider whether or not we are cursed.