Jazz All-Star point guard Mike Conley made his first appearance in the second-round series against the Clippers in Game 6. Conley admitted after the Jazz were eliminated on Friday that he was far from 100% due his hamstring tightness, Eric Walden of the Salt Lake Tribune tweets.
“Initially, I was told I wasn’t going to be able to play at all this series, just last Friday,” Conley said. “This maybe being the last game of the season, I had to give it a try. But I couldn’t move well. It was a tough night.”
Conley, an unrestricted free agent this summer, scored just five points on 1-for-8 shooting and committed six turnovers in the 131-119 loss.
We have more on the Jazz:
- Conley’s backcourt partner, Donovan Mitchell, was also a game-time decision due to an ankle injury. Mitchell poured in 39 points and nine assists but his 40-minute stint was painful in more ways than one, Walden tweets. “It (bleeping) hurt. Just tried to play through it. … I was just trying to find a way, by any means necessary,” he said.
- Losing the last four games of the series and squandering a 25-point lead in Game 6 will haunt Mitchell, Walden adds in another tweet. “I’m still in shock. … I don’t know what I’m going to be doing next week,” he said. “Probably watching the games, mad as hell. This hurts more than last year. This is going to eat at me for a long time.” However, Mitchell isn’t blaming the coaching staff for the collapse, according to Walden (Twitter link). “The coaches made great adjustments. And we just didn’t execute,” he said. “That’s on the players on the floor.”
- Rudy Gobert believes the tougher team won the series, Walden relays (Twitter link). “They were the tougher team over the course of the series, more connected over the course of the series,” he said of the Clippers. “For us, it’s pretty much the story of our season. For us to take another step in the playoffs, a lot of things are gonna have to be better.”
- Picking up on Gobert’s theme, Tony Jones of The Athletic opines that the Jazz are probably not near a championship-level team despite having the league’s best record. Playing without Kawhi Leonard, the Clippers turned up the intensity in the second half of Game 6 and the Jazz failed to match their physicality and got out-hustled.
The Jazz should be ashamed of themselves. #1 seed playing against a team who lost their best player. Up a bunch and blew it time and time again. Fire everybody
Chill. Conley was out basically the whole series. He is as key of a player as Kawhi is to the Clips. They worked their asses off and shouldn’t be ashamed nor fire anyone.
You could tell Mitchell’s ankle was really bothering him as well. He didn’t have his usual burst the last 2 games. Had a hard time getting to the rim and hitting his defensive rotations.
You can’t compare Kawhi and Conley. Also, Utah’s strong point this year was their relative depth, they were never as top heavy as LA.
Also Ibaka was out the entire series.
Come on man give UTA some love… they overachieved, I mean did anyone expect them to get out of R1, most certainly I didn’t!
I wonder how teams are going to view the Center position going forward, seeing as guys like Gobert can easily be exploited and the success the nets & clips have had with their center rotations makes me think more and more teams are gunna play small ball at all times going forward or at least much more often
Yep. Gobert -24 last night. Only other Jazz player with a double digit negative was Joe Ingles (incredible -18 in only 18 minutes).
Oh please. Joker won MVP and Embid was a season long favorite for the award. The center position is fine. Players who can’t create any offense are the ones in trouble
Ok but I think it’s fair to say that Jokic and Embiid are the exceptions to the rule? Also, to be fair, Jokic isn’t exactly a traditional center – he shoots 40% from 3 and essentially ran the point after Murray went down.
If an elite rim runner and the best rim protector in the league is consistently a guy you’re not sure you can have on the floor when it matters, then I would say the position is in some trouble.
At least in terms of: Do you invest max money in it?
Sure sign a guy like Zubac on the cheap and bench him in the playoffs, not a big deal. But are teams going to be viewing prospective centers and centerpieces (no pun intended) going forward? I think it’s definitely trending toward No.
Why is everyone acting like that is not, has not, been a VERY prominent trend already? Ever heard of 5-out? Positionless BB?
Gobert was not hustling out to the line to contest. JVG was pointing this out. The fact Gobert is pointing a finger at “we” when he is the culprit is not beyond him. He should have an offense against smalls by now. He lost to a bunch of corner-shooters.
The 3-pt line should extend to the sidelines; should be farther away; the court should be wider. Another page’s argument. Alas
Gobert gave up the 3, but not every team is gonna be able to make them like the Clippers. Historically good 3 pt team.
If Rudy Gold Bear had a go to move he could execute in the post he’d be more effective on offense. He just doesn’t have it right now. He gets his hands on the ball and raked too often even on rebounds.
He needs first of all an offensive mindset. “Get me the ball” and I’m going to do a fundamentally sound offensive play a thousand times a day in practice. Gain confidence and become a threat on that end of the floor outside of lobs or put backs.
On defense when the other team plays small ball and forces Rudy to a perimeter guy, you can’t have him switch up to a 6-2 guard. That’s the fault of the team somehow either coaching or the players on the floor.
Some may say okay you can’t have him out there guarding bojan bogdanovic who’s a stretch-four. Who can he guard? You have to make them pay on the other end. They want to play small ball your guy should score every time on the other end. Your outside shots vs my big man dunks every time.
If you’re a big with no offense contributions then you don’t deserve a super max!! You can do well during regular season but you’ll be useless during playoff. Jazz should trade him and try to get Richaun Holmes type of big with a floater AL.
Joker and Embid can post up, got mid-range and provide assists! This dude looked goofy as hell last night .
Donovan Mitchell deserves a better team, and teammate than Gobert. Gobert just gave up trying to rotate on threes and also was completely ineffective at keeping Jackson and Mann away from the rim.
The playoffs really expose all the weaknesses and just don’t know if Gabbert is ever going to be a finals caliber center. Regular season DPOY is something, but not everything when the end goal is a championship.
Mitchell left every piece of himself on the court.
You can blame Gobert for not rotating, but I think Quinn Snyder should get some blame for leaving him out there. Clippers were bombing threes and Snyder made no adjustments to his defense.
Agreed.
While I think it’s tougher to pull a guy like Gobert because he’s a “max guy”, as opposed to Lue pulling Zubac, the bottom line is Quin had to know this was a possibility – whether or not Gobert would get exposed in the playoffs was a serious concern going in.
So when the moment came he should have been prepped to pull the plug. Losing to LA back to back without Kawhi is kind of embarrassing for a team that prided itself on its defense to their extent.
Like formerlyz said: Ilyasova.
Yes Quinn’s error was bigger than Gobert’s really, since Gobert did nothing unusual for him.
Hope Gobert wasn’t blaming Bogdanovic Or Favors. Mann vs Gobert winner: Mann.
I’ve been saying Gobert and his boring one sided play and lack of offense won’t get it done. Mitchell needs a scoring allstar next to him, not a stifle who can’t score!
Everyone loves to blame Gobert and everyone loves to act as if Lue is in over his head as a head coach.
Lue made adjustments and ran 5 out, because of injuries Conley and Mitchell couldn’t hit thier rotations. Gobert was screwed either way. Stay on his man and leave the rim open or protect the paint and leave his man wide open. Embiid wouldn’t have fared any better. Hell Hakeem Olajuwon would’ve had a hard time defending in those conditions. Utah needs to find a big bench wing that can play the 5 in small ball situations. Snyder should have made some adjustments but who was he going to turn to? Favors would have had the same problems and Clarkson doesn’t defend.
Thank you. These comments are so annoying, “Gobert’s the problem, fire everyone, get Donovan a better team”….they couldn’t make the right adjustments and fell to a team that was a hard matchup. It sucks, but happens in the playoffs!
It’s constant on any sports board. Many peoples memories are only as long as the last game.
Bunch of people with no engagement complaining about ones that do. It is the easy life. But why bother posting at all.
Maybe the nonchalants don’t expect offense from Gobert, like I don’t expect Giannis to be Superman. But Utah has been not breaking through for longer than the Bucks.
I do dislike the idea of gotta get Mitchell a team. Why not get Utah a team. Why make it all about Mitchell? Your team won’t get him if he did leave, whoever “your” is.
So you defend players who are paid like stars but don’t improve??? So you too make excuses but you are an adult right??? If that works for you make your excuses and be proud.
Lol what? Gobert had the best advanced statistical defensive season arguable ever in NBA history and you are whining about him not improving? Go sit down man.
Gobert can’t shoot! For grown dudes some of you love to make excuses for professional athletes. Imagine wanting a max contract when you have yet to expand your game. Do you remain stagnant in life too? Or do you progress???
As a Raptors fan it’s gotta be frustrating to see a team lose Kawhi and still make it to the conference finals…
As an obsessive individual lil D you are a vile of vomit.
Please, call me whatever makes it easier for you to deal with the fact that I’m the number 1 commenter on this site.
At best you’re a number 2, Foxtrots.
Honestly, I am pretty stagnant, sitting on my deck right now, looking at the ocean having a bit of smoke, checking you out getting worked up about Rudy Gobert.
Started showering a bit…I might have to stop being so stagnant and move inside.
Lmao. Some people man.
Agree with your imps so they don’t throw you out of the suck up click.
It’s clique bro. When you get to be 93 with a Ph.D. you will get that.
You posting while you’re out with your family for clams?
It’s gorgeous here now man, sun on the water is beautiful.
It’s cloudy where I am. Well you are perfect right? 93 and all so perfect without a blemish. Must be very proud. Typos have never happened to you of course. You are the be all or end it all of life correct?
Clams??? Whatever makes you feel secure as a geriatric. I eat the entire lobster guy. Something you ate for brunch right?
I lied about being 93. . I am actually 11 years old.
That is super cool you eat the entire lobster man. that is something we all want to know. Thanks bro.
And a typo is when you mistype, not spell something completely wrong.
Well ask hoops rumors for a ribbon award or a sticker. Perhaps a cookie with suffice.
“Will suffice” bro not “with suffice” and “We’ll ask” not “well ask”
Pull it together, I am 11 and I get this stuff.
Of all words it’s curious Foxtrot would miss “clique”.
I’d expect his French to be great, considering his English is so poor.
It is a typo bro, he typed three letters wrong. that is a type. OOOOOOO
Call the Jazz Charmin as they are soft.