Dr Jekyll Meet the Jazz

Robert Louis Stevenson penned the novella the "Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde" in 1886. Stevenson reveals at the end of the story that Dr Jekyll sought to separate his good side from his darker impulses by concocting a potion that would transform himself into a man free of conscience, i.e. Mr Hyde. Dr Jekyll was delighted at first when he turned into Mr Hyde due to the moral freedom he felt; eventually, though, Mr Hyde found a way to emerge on his own and permanently vanquished the better Dr Jekyll.

Similarly, the Jazz has started out this year much like Dr Jekyll in that at home it plays with effort and focus, but when the team travels, the mystical Mr Hyde emerges causing the team to lose focus, effort, and relevance (see Monday night's loss to the Hornets for instance).

For the Jazz, Dr Jekyll, while not perfect, plays good team defense and brings hustle and effort in the offense and rebounding areas of the game. While, Mr Hyde manifests itself in poor perimeter defense, slow rotations, selfish offensive play, and lackadaisical rebounding effort.

For proof, I present the following:

Jazz at home (Dr Jekyll): 11 wins 5 losses (9 wins 2 losses vs teams with a record under 600; 2 wins 3 losses vs teams with a 600 or better record); Average home points for 98.3; Average home points against 93.4; differential at home of +4.9.

Jazz on the road (Mr Hyde): 3 wins 8 losses (3 wins 5 losses vs teams with a record under 600; no wins 3 losses vs teams with a 600 or better record); Average away points for 92.8; Average away points against 101.3; differential on the road of -8.5.

To put it in another light, the Jazz are putting up 5.5 more points at home than on the road while at the same time giving up 7.9 fewer points - that's a 13.4 point swing! A team free of conscious indeed!

There is no doubt that the Jazz should win games against opponents with sub-500 records as shown by its home record of 6 wins and 1 loss against such teams; however, the Jazz has a Hyde-like ability to lose to these same teams on the road as shown by its 1 win and 3 loss record to these teams on the road this year.

And much like Dr Jekyll, the Jazz are waking up finding Mr Hyde has replaced them more and more as shown in the team's 4 win 6 loss record over the last 10 games.

This trend puts the Jazz in a tenuous position over the next month and a half as an unchecked Mr Hyde could make the Jazz lottery bound (the Jazz play 16 road games to 10 home games in that time span). And while lottery bound may have a silver lining to it this year (i.e. deep draft), for me losing and being lottery bound with Mr Hyde effort is harder to stomach than losing and being lottery bound with Dr Jekyll class.