In all of Utah Jazz (and New Orleans Jazz) history, the team has given up 147 or more points just 13 times.
One of those times was on Sunday.
The Jazz fell to 16-63 on the season with a 147-134 loss to the Atlanta Hawks. To say that there was little-to-no defense played is a bit of an understatement.
Defense has been an issue for the Jazz while they’ve been rebuilding and trying to develop young talent. Of the 13 times the Jazz have allowed 147 or more points, six of those have been in the last three years.
Of course, that’s not to say that the Hawks were trying much more on defense. The 281 total points scored ranks as the third-highest total score during regulation this season, and the Hawks did allow Keyonte George to have a career night off the bench.
George scored a career-best 35 points on 10 of 19 shooting, including 7 of 13 from deep. It was actually a really good shooting night for the Jazz (42.6% from 3-point range) and the Hawks (53.7%).
Did I mention the lack of defense?
There’s been a lot of talk recently about the need for Jazz players to recognize their opportunity, especially the younger players and those on non-guaranteed deals.
There is an expectation that they play hard and compete, no matter the standings, no matter the number of games played and no matter the situation.
But with just three games left to play after Sunday’s contest, it is difficult to ignore the natural human inclination to feel like there isn’t anything worth playing for.
The players are on a team that is run by people who are definitely hoping they lose the remainder of the games on the schedule. Earlier in the season and even down a lot of the home stretch, you could probably convince the players to try to prove the front office wrong and to compete and prove that they deserve to be in the NBA.
At this point though, the Jazz are just inches away from securing the worst regular-season record in the NBA, and there’s probably not anything players could do in the final handful of games that would change anything about the future.
Their offseason workouts and programs are not going to be decided by the last few games, their future on this team will not be decided in these last few games and they aren’t going to become different players.
The Hawks, meanwhile, are settled into a play-in spot in the Eastern Conference and only need to compete for either seventh or eighth in the standings.
By the time they were able to extend the lead beyond 20 points over the Jazz Sunday, they probably figured they didn’t really need to play that hard on defense to secure the win, and from the Jazz’s perspective, what is there to play for?
This is probably what you can expect over the last three games from the Jazz, and really, who can blame them?