The Utah Jazz led by as much as 18 points during Wednesday's game against the Houston Rockets, but they needed overtime to take down the home team. Naturally, All-Stars Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert were not satisfied with their performance.
While Mitchell felt relieved that they got the 132-127 win, he issued a strong reminder to the rest of the Jazz that they should never waste a huge lead ever again. They may have been lucky against the Rockets, but that will not always be the case.
“It feels good to come out of here with a win, but we've gotta find a way not to give up an 18-point lead,” Mitchell shared, per Eric Walden of The Salt Lake Tribune.
Rudy Gobert was a bit harsher in his assessment of the Jazz compared to Donovan Mitchell. The Frenchman said they didn't deserve to win with the way they played in the final stretch of the fourth quarter, a period that saw the Rockets outshine them 34-24 to force overtime.
“The way we played [the last few minutes of regulation], I don't think we deserved to win the game. So it was nice to get a chance to redeem ourselves in overtime,” Gobert said.
Of course a win is still a win and the Jazz should be happy that they took the victory. However, with the regular season in its closing stages and the postseason nearing, Utah should have been playing better now and gearing themselves for playoff basketball. What they showed on Tuesday was nowhere near the level they want to be at this point of the campaign.
Simply put, the Jazz can't afford to collapse defensively in the postseason. That's a recipe for disaster. Fortunately for them, it is still not too late to polish everything wrong that going on for them. For starters, they might want to review the game film of their showdown with Houston.
Follow Us
Subscribe