Former NBA champion paints Utah Jazz as fraudulent contenders
Outsiders with opinions about the Utah Jazz should study before they tweet.
Even if the Utah Jazz (38-12) do manage to maintain their supreme overall record and thereby earn homecourt advantage throughout the playoffs, chances are they won’t hoist the Larry O’Brien Championship Trophy in July without several victories away from home along the way.
No worries. After all, despite Monday’s 111-103 loss in Texas to the Dallas Mavericks (28-21) that snapped their nine-game win streak, the Jazzmen still sit in a three-way tie for the second-most road wins in the league.
And given the 16-10 record outside of Salt Lake City — with more than half of the wins coming against teams that are now .500 or better — this Utah Jazz bunch is hardly deserving of the tag as a poor road team.
Apparently, though, there are folks who spend too much time overreacting on Twitter to check out pertinent records and whatnot…
One such ill-informed naysayer regarding the Utah Jazz
Immediately following Utah’s loss to Dallas, 2008 Boston Celtics champ and current ESPN analyst Kendrick Perkins made sure to point out that Luka Doncic and the Mavericks were able to handle their league-leading visitors even without the help of Kristaps Porzingis (sprained right wrist).
Also in the tweet, Perkins took a wildly inaccurate cheap shot at the Jazzmen, suggesting that they are splendid on their own floor but instantly look like one of the 14 worst NBA squads once they exit their friendly confines:
Now, some would argue the only serious issue plaguing the Jazz in the loss to the Mavericks was the simultaneous 0-for-8 nights beyond the arc from starters Donovan Mitchell and Royce O’Neale. Taking out those two goose-egg 3-point shooting performances, Utah was 12-for-28 from downtown.
With that in mind, had Mitchell and O’Neale not been absolutely frigid from deep, the Jazz might’ve cruised once again.
Plus, considering Mitchell and O’Neale are together 238-for-606 (39.3 percent) from 3-point land this season, it’s safe to say — no matter the venue and no matter what Perkins may choose to tweet about the matter — that a combined 0-for-16 clip from Mitchell and O’Neale is simply a statistical outlier.
In other words, down the road, what is the chance of that ever happening again, much less twice in the same playoff series?
Practically zero. Simple as that.
At 8 p.m. MT Wednesday, the Jazz will wrap up their two-game road trip when they face the Phoenix Suns (35-14), who are currently No. 2 in the Western Conference standings at 2.5 games behind Utah.
