Indiana Pacers run Utah Jazz and their fans out of the building

“There’s no one thing that you point to, we just have to play better.”

- Quin Snyder

That could be the entire recap right there. There’s not just one thing you can point to—on the contrary—there’s a lot you can point to. It does start by playing better, but there’s a lot more to another shellacking at home, this time by the Indiana Pacers. The Pacers beat the Utah Jazz 121-88. It was such a bad loss that Jazz fans began their exodus to beat the postgame traffic at the end of the third quarter.

Who could blame them? It’s not like Utah has executed any come back from behind victories this year. When they’re down by double digits late in the third, those deficits have turned into 20-30 point losses.

The only silver lining to this game—if you want to call it that—is that Utah was playing on a back to back and third game in four nights. After that, the well runneth dry.

Playing without their best offensive player? So is Indiana.

Playing a touch schedule? The players on the other side of the ball could care less.

Bad starting lineup? All the better for the opponent.

Utah has hit game 20 of the regular season and is now 8-12. They have played a gauntlet of a schedule which gives the Utah Jazz a bit of a PR shield to hide behind when things go south, but you best believe if the Jazz were 12-8, they’d be getting puffy chesty about it. Unfortunately, that isn’t the case.

As was the case, an unlikely hero off the opponent’s bench lit them up. Last game it was Domantas Sabonis—who did have another great game with 13 points, 10 rebounds, and 6 assists—but this time it was Doug McDermott who scored 21 points in 23 minutes on 8 of 13 shooting.

How was Utah’s shooting?

They shot 42% from the field and 25.8% from three. When Assistant Coach Alex Jensen was asked about the Jazz’s halftime adjustments after a rough offensive half his answer was, “Shoot more threes.” Utah would shoot 31 times from three compared to Indiana’s 18 and still end the game with one less three pointer made than the Pacers.

After Quin Snyder—FINALLY—allowed Utah to play with a stretch big against the Sacramento Kings, he went back to what he knew best and inserted Favors and Gobert. In the opening minutes with Favors and Gobert in the lineup, Utah struggled with turnovers and turned the ball over 5 times in 7 minutes.

Utah had a turnover ratio of 19.0. What’s the league high right now? 18.1. You don’t win many games by coughing up the ball. The Utah Jazz were able to keep this game close in the 1st quarter through offensive rebounds. That couldn’t keep Utah in the game for too terribly long.

Not helping is Rudy Gobert’s regression on the defensive end. Tonight he had a 122.2 defensive rating while his offensive rating was a 76.4. He had a net rating of +/- -45.9. Where’s our Defensive Player of the Year? Who monstar’d Rudy?

With all the poor play, this game ended up being the worst loss the Jazz have suffered to the Pacers in franchise history. The Utah Jazz are now 2-6 at home which is the worst home record in all of the NBA. So there’s that.

There’s not a lot to be excited about with this team. Utah needs Donovan back just to survive this brutal stretch of games in December. But more and more, it’s looking like Utah needs more than what their roster can provide.

Utah hits the road ... AGAIN ... as they face off against the Brooklyn Nets. The Brooklyn Nets are 3-7 in their last 10.