The Utah Jazz are struggling. They’ve lost 4 of their last 6 games and have looked like a different team than the one that went on a tear earlier in the season.

Utah will take on the Boston Celtics in hopes of finding their groove again. Or if that’s possible. Utah has a serious issue right now on the defensive end with their second unit. In the last 6 games the Jazz have the 24th ranked defense in the NBA, a far cry from the defense that was top 5 in the league for the season. Considering how good Rudy Gobert has been, you can see where some of these problems originate.

Derrick Favors has not looked like himself lately and opposing defenses are taking advantage. In the last 6 games, of players with regular rotation minutes, Derrick Favors has the lowest net rating on the team of -13.4. When Gobert sits teams are going at Favors relentlessly and now that it seems the word is out, it’s going to continue to happen. At some point Quin Snyder needs to adjust, but when?

It’s not just Derrick Favors either. Second worst in that stretch is Bojan Bogdanovic at -6.4. The thing to remeber about that is Bogdanovic regularly shares the floor with Gobert. I’m not sure which is worse.

Against Boston, we’ll find out if the Jazz can overcome these weaknesses or if they’ll continue to scuffle.

Game Info

When: 5:30 PM MST

Where: TD Garden, Boston, MA

TV: TNT, AT&T SportsNet-Rocky Mountain

Radio: 97.5 FM/1280 AM

What to watch for

Will Quin Snyder adjust?

For 6 games Utah’s weaknesses have been exposed. Something is not right with Favors and Bojan Bogdanovic is in the middle of a terrible slump.

Last game, against the Golden State Warriors and with the game still within reach, Snyder subbed Favors in late and the Warriors went right at him running off 6 strait points. Gobert came in after that stretch but it was too late at that point. That decision alone didn’t cost the Jazz the game, but it certainly put the nail in the coffin.

Photo by Tim Nwachukwu/Getty Images

What’s frustrating about that is Rudy Gobert played 32 minutes total and he was having a monster night with 24 points and 28 rebounds. Why didn’t Snyder play him 36 total minutes? In a close game, when you have someone dominating another team like that, why isn’t he playing? I know it’s a shortened season, but playing 36 minutes, to secure a win, isn’t asking too much. What’s weirder is we’ve seen Gobert play that amount of minutes multiple times this year.

In this game it will be interesting to see if Snyder plays Gobert more, or will he give Juwan Morgan some minutes at backup center.