Subscribe
Follow Us
The Utah Jazz suffered an ugly upset defeat by losing to the Minnesota Timberwolves on Saturday night on their home floor. After the disappointing defeat, Jazz center Rudy Gobert bared that he needed to play stronger and take care of the ball better as he recorded five turnovers in the game, per Eric Walden of The Salt Lake Tribune.
Rudy Gobert, who had 5 turnovers, said he needed to be stronger with the ball: "It’s on me — the stronger I go up, the more likely they are to blow the whistle."
— tribjazz (@tribjazz) April 25, 2021
Jazz guard Mike Conley also shed light on their dismal performance by claiming that they need to match their opponents' aggressiveness on the defensive end and outplay them in their coming games.
Mike Conley said the way to respond to the Wolves' aggression is with counter-aggression: "We have to play with more force — force with passing, force with cutting, use their aggressiveness against them." Said the Jazz needed to ditch some plays earlier and just go to the hoop.
— tribjazz (@tribjazz) April 25, 2021
Despite having a strong start in the opening frame by way of a 40-point outburst, Utah's level of play began to decrease in the succeeding quarters. Minnesota capitalized on the opportunities and managed to come back from 17 points down to get back in the mix of things.
The game eventually became tighter in the final minutes of the fourth quarter as both sides wanted to get the win. However, the Timberwolves managed to execute better in crunch time as they escaped with a 101-96 victory. Gobert tallied nine points and 17 rebounds, while Conley notched 18 points and seven assists for the Jazz in their loss.
Despite absorbing the rare defeat in Salt Lake City, the Jazz continue to sit atop the Western Conference standings with a league-best 44-16 record. However, they will definitely have to fix their errors and learn from their mistakes as they approach the end of the regular season and head to the playoffs.
Hopefully, by then, both Rudy Gobert and Mike Conley have already practiced what they preached as they hope to live up to the billing of a top Western Conference squad, especially in the coming postseason.
