Jazz appear lethargic in 109-94 loss to Pacers

The Utah Jazz may not have hit rock bottom with Monday night’s 109-94 loss to the Indiana Pacers.

But there’s no denying they aren’t in a good place.

Try and forget for a minute that the Jazz are now 17-26 on the season, and have lost 15 of their last 19 games. Put aside that they are in the 10th spot in the Western Conference and a now-distant five games out of the eighth and final playoff spot.

They are a team that has to play 48 good minutes to win basketball games. But at the moment, they aren’t coming close to that threshold. In a game where they should’ve been competitive, the Jazz simply didn’t show up in large segments.

“It was a weak effort,” Utah forward Jonas Jerebko said. “We didn’t come out with energy and we didn’t take care of the ball. Obviously, shots weren’t falling in the first half, but we still have to battle it out. Overall, it was weak from all of us. We just have to bounce back and sleep this off, and come back to work tomorrow and be better.”

It was an alarming performance before a sold out crowd at Vivint Smart Home Arena. The Jazz never led by more than two points. They trailed by as many as 23 points. They allowed the Pacers to shoot 53 percent from both the field and the 3-point line and they turned the ball over 13 times and balanced that number with just 11 assists.

The Pacers played on Sunday night, a win over the Phoenix Suns. It stood to reason that they would be fatigued on the second night of a back-to-back, while playing at elevation.

Instead, Indiana looked like the fresh team, the team with energy. The Jazz — who hadn’t played since losing in Charlotte on Friday night — looked lethargic, and they looked frustrated.

The Vivint crowd was right there with its team. When Rodney Hood missed six of his first seven shots, he was serenaded with boos. When the Pacers opened the second half on a 9-0 run — pushing their lead to 20 points — the crowd grumbled. And when the third quarter ended, many in attendance headed for the exits.

“We have to compete, at the end of the day,” Utah center Ekpe Udoh said. “They played last night, we should’ve been in this game. But, we have to come out and compete. We have to have that hunger. I don’t think you could feel us. We had a couple of runs, but overall it was the same old story.”

The Jazz are dealing with more than basketball at the moment. Trade rumors have swirled around the team for a few weeks, and there’s uncertainty in the locker room.

At the same time, the players were clearly disappointed in their effort against the Pacers.

They allowed Victor Oladipo, who could be an All-Star for the first time, to score a game-high 28 points.

He added six rebounds and six assists to that total. Indiana put five players in double-figures and totaled 26 assists. And the Pacers were also able to win the rebounding battle.

Jazz rookie guard Donovan Mitchell tried to keep his team afloat with 23 points on 8-of-16 shooting. But Ricky Rubio and Joe Ingles combined to go 1-of-8 from the field with two points. And with two starters combining for a single bucket, that was simply too much for the Jazz to overcome offensively.

“We had six turnovers in the first six minutes of the game,” Jazz coach Quin Snyder said. “We can’t execute like that and come out like that at the beginning of the game. So, we put ourselves in a position where we’re playing from, not behind, but way behind. That changes the game.”