Game 3 Postgame: Clippers Thelonius Monk the Jazz

[Ed. It’s the NBA Playoffs. And Utah Jazz fans are allowed to be as passionate as they want. I encourage it!]

That about sums it up. Any loss is a bad loss, but how bad was this one? Real bad. Here are a few things that made it real bad, and some other things that are just bad in general:

• Paul Pierce played 21 minutes. The man is slower than frozen molasses. The Jazz should have taken better advantage of his being on the floor than they did. Doc Rivers tried everything he could to give the Jazz this game and they just couldn’t convert.
• Shelvin Mack played 8 minutes. I wouldn’t have been frustrated about that ordinarily, because I’ve kind of accepted the fact that Dante Exum is out of Quin Snyder’s rotation. However, Raul Neto was available. Maybe he’s too hurt to play more than 3 minutes, but it didn’t seem like it. The man can play point guard, and he can do it better than Shelvin.
• This play:

Look, this was the right call. Diaw shouldn’t have gotten continuation, and he didn’t. But look at this:

If you’re gonna give this to Chris Paul, you have to at least review the Diaw play. The referees didn’t lose the game for the Jazz, but they definitely helped the Clippers more than Paul Pierce did. The “refs you suck” chant was well-deserved.

• I think I could jump higher than Derrick Favors right now. He’s getting a lot of hate on twitter right now, (I plead guilty. Sorry, I had a lot of feelz and stuff) but it’s largely undeserved. The man hasn’t been healthy since before the all-star break. #FreeBolomboy isn’t the be-all, end-all solution, but it’s possible that he could provide some energy off the bench, which was sorely lacking at times in the frontcourt.
• Chris Paul is so annoying. He’s a prima donna, he constantly complains in order to get calls down the stretch, he absolutely mugged Gordon Hayward, gave him an atomic wedgie, and STILL didn’t get called for a foul during a crucial possession in the 4th quarter, and, yes, he’s really good. I’d like to see him earn a few of those fouls though. I’m not advocating for him to be injured, of course, but a few hard, Matt Harpring-style fouls in the paint would send a clear message.
• George Hill and Gordon Hayward had an incredible night, but it was wasted because the team lost.
• Rudy Gobert was on the bench. This is the worst part of the whole series. The. Worst. We could very well be up 3-0 if he were healthy based on the way Hayward and Hill have been playing. He’s the DPOY (Well, Draymond Green will probably win the award, but we know that’s bogus). You don’t just replace his offensive screens and defensive paint protection with Jeff Withey, Derrick Favors, and Boris Diaw.
• In the end, the Jazz missed open shots that they should have made, and, well, I’ll let Coach Boylan explain it:

The Jazz now face a must-win on Sunday against a Clippers team who has homecourt again and will be playing with house money. The odds are not in our favor, but crazier things have happened. The Warriors blew a 3-1 lead and all that.

#FreeBolomboy

#BeatLA

#RefsYouSuck

#TakeNote