Jazz stress need for improved isolation defense in loss vs. Bucks – Deseret News

Guarding Damian Lillard and Giannis Antetokounmpo is a tough task for any NBA team, and the Utah Jazz found that out firsthand on Monday night at the Delta Center.

In a 125-110 victory in which the Milwaukee Bucks led fairly comfortably throughout — especially in the second half — Lillard and Antetokounmpo combined to score 70 points as they coasted past the Jazz to their 26th win. The loss dropped Utah to 10-34 and notched the Jazz’s sixth consecutive loss and their ninth defeat in the last 10 games.

Milwaukee took full advantage of a Jazz scoring drought that extended over six minutes at the start of the third quarter, outscoring Utah 16-0 over that span.

“For us, it’s just we got to stop the runs. That’s the biggest thing. I think we overreacted a little with some situations on the runs to cause it to keep going, to be honest,” said Jazz guard Isaiah Collier.

From that point on, it was mostly all Bucks, though the Jazz showed some resolve in the fourth quarter to cut the large lead to 12 points multiple times.

Antetokounmpo scored 35 points and added 18 rebounds and seven assists, while Lillard, the former Weber State star, also tallied 35 points to go alongside eight assists and four rebounds. It was the first time the superstar duo has each scored 35 points since they teamed up in Milwaukee.

Utah offered little resistance to the Bucks, who shot 60.5% from the field on Monday. Coach Will Hardy attributed a lot of the defensive issues to poor isolation defense, which showed up again and again in the loss.

“We’re getting beat way too easily at the point of attack and it’s putting a lot of pressure on the weak side. With a player like Giannis, with a guy like Dame, if you get blown by in a straight line, you’re in a really, really tough spot. Everybody to a man has to do a better job guarding individually,” Hardy said.

Too often on Monday night, the weak side help was late after somebody got beat, which compounded the issue and resulted in Milwaukee outscoring Utah 64-42 in the paint.

“The second piece of that is the weak side is late and is part of that because there should be more resistance at the point of attack,” Hardy said, “But we also have to have a proactive mindset on the weak side of the floor defensively, especially on a night where Walker (Kessler) is not going to be playing very much and they’re going to attack the paint. I felt like that was the area of the game that hurt us the most.”

Not having Kessler on Monday certainly didn’t help matters, though Hardy stressed that Utah can’t rely on him to clean things up.

“We don’t want to get blown by. Walker does a pretty good job, but we don’t want to make the game about him having to clean up a mess on every possession because to ultimately get where we want to go, we have to guard the ball much better at the point of attack,” Hardy said. “So there are probably five plays in the game that you could go, ‘Maybe if Walker had been in, that play would be different.’ But on the point of attack with defense tonight, I don’t think that Walker would’ve changed that a ton.”

Hardy said that the Jazz got beat away from the help defense about 75% of the time, noting the team’s mental focus needs to be improved.

“I do think that they are competing, but there’s the physical part of competing and then there’s the mental part. And I think that right now in that area in particular, I think our mental focus has not been good enough in terms of how do I need to set my body up to give myself the best chance to guard this guy,” Hardy said.

“I think our pick-and-roll defense has gotten better. I think our off ball defense has gotten better, but in the half court our isolation defense has to get better.”

Isaiah Collier’s starting chance

Since guard Keyonte George was moved to the bench, 29th overall pick Isaiah Collier has been given the starting nod in eight of the Jazz’s last 10 games, including on Monday.

Collier registered 12 points and eight assists on 6 of 9 shooting and added two rebounds and three steals in one of his most efficient games of his young career.

“Yeah, I think we’re just looking at different things that work for us,” forward Lauri Markkanen said. “He’s been doing a good job the whole year and saying ready and he deserves the opportunity and he’s been playing well.”

For his part, George played 31 minutes — the second-most on the team — and scored 15 points on 5 of 13 shooting while closing the game.

Jordan Clarkson’s return

After missing the Jazz’s last 10 contests with left plantar fasciitis, veteran guard Jordan Clarkson returned to the lineup, coming off of the bench to play 22 minutes.

Though it wasn’t his most efficient night (he shot 4 for 12 from the field), he knocked down four 3-pointers in the fourth quarter to bring some life into the Delta Center crowd and get back into a groove after extended time away.