The sky is falling. The Utah Jazz remain winless thus far in November, on the cusp of a six-game losing streak. The team is shooting 27.6% on wide-open threes and has been trailing the bottom of nearly every statistical category. But just maybe, just maybe, all they need is a good ol\u2019 NBA Cup Tournament match to light a competitive spirit under them.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s right, the Dallas Mavericks host the Utah Jazz at the American Airlines Center for an Emirates NBA Cup West Group A showdown. Dallas has already gained an early 1-0 advantage in the Cup standings in their 116-111 victory over the Rockets just last week. The NBA Cup has not been favorable towards the Jazz since its inauguration; in fact, it\u2019s given teams more of an excuse to continue brutally beating up tanking teams \u2014 point differential matters!<\/p>\n
Over the past few years, the Jazz have held records of:<\/p>\n
2023-24: 2-22024-25: 0-42025-26: 1-3<\/p>\n
But now that they\u2019re playing for wins (or so we\u2019ve been told), we could see the script flipped. After all, it\u2019s a \u2018blank slate\u2019 for this young team. They\u2019ve battled through injuries, have been a part of two overtime games, and have been through some of the worst shooting woes in years. But that\u2019s only temporary, right?<\/p>\n
Dallas has likely been content with the Cooper Flagg-Kyrie Irving pairing, given that their team is 4-4 and has lost to some of the league\u2019s best. The Mavs play an incredibly fast brand of basketball, ranking among the league leaders in overall pace and fast-break points.<\/p>\n
You have to put a lid on Cooper<\/p>\n
Obviously, Utah won\u2019t be able to put the reigning Rookie of the Year to a complete stop, but this team has to make an effort to command their presence in the paint. The Jazz allowed an unanswered 12-0 run by New Orleans in overtime just 48 hours ago, exclusively inside the arc. We saw them hold Zion Williamson completely scoreless in the first half, but all hell broke loose after they surrendered a 13-point lead. We\u2019ll have to hope that they can put out the same energy as they did against a conference foe like Flagg.<\/p>\n
You could consider Cooper Flagg as an honorary \u2018Jazz Killer\u2019. In his two career matchups, he averages 34.0 points, 8.5 rebounds and 7.0 assists. Though, the Jazz have won both of those matches. Now, with a reinforced Mavs squad around him, Utah can\u2019t roll into Dallas with a smug grin.<\/p>\n
The numbers don\u2019t lie; Flagg has struggled tremendously from deep early into the season, shooting 7-of-33 from outside this season. Utah will have to force Flagg into uncomfortable shots that take him away from the line, where he converts 55.9% of his two-point attempts.<\/p>\n
Because of his promoted role as a secondary playmaker, they should also employ a player like Ace or Okogie to pressure him into his loose handle and perhaps cough up a few turnovers \u2014 Flagg is averaging 3.1 turnovers per game in the early going of the season.<\/p>\n
As one of the rising superstars in the West, he\u2019s transcended a typical \u2018sophomore slump\u2019 to turn Dallas into a legitimate playoff team this year. Finding a way to slow down this multifaceted star will be a burden on this team for the foreseeable future.<\/p>\n
How can you get your #2 pick more involved?<\/p>\n
This has been a popular piece circulating Jazz Twitter:<\/p>\n
Through the first eight games, the furthest milestone Peterson has achieved is really only being thrust in the starting lineup. He\u2019s averaged an honest 30.3 minutes per game, but the question is, why hasn\u2019t it felt like it?<\/p>\n
He shares the ball with a dominant guard like Keyonte George, who completely dictates the tempo of the offense. Peterson\u2019s role shifts to that of a more complementary piece \u2014 a player that the team can chuck the ball to throw up a Hail Mary before the shot clock expires. Coach Hardy runs an egalitarian, pass-and-cut offensive system where Peterson is used to distort the defense rather than being a centerpiece.<\/p>\n
Of course, he has his rookie mistakes too: he\u2019s hitting just 35.4% of his field-goal attempts, struggling to find a consistent rhythm inside the arc, particularly on his floater attempts. That could look particularly concerning, considering that he was noted for his lack of vertical burst coming out of the draft.<\/p>\n
But after looking at the Darius Acuff Jr. template over at Sacramento (not recommended if you want to win basketball games), the coaching staff needs to realize they have DARRYN PETERSON on their squad. This is to hope they could have more plays run for him: perhaps using him more as a post-up guard, or having him be the one to leak up the court in transition.<\/p>\n
If the Jazz are going to be without Jackson Jr. for a couple of months at least, and if Lauri Markkanen is unable to break out of his shooting slump, Peterson will need to play an integral part of the offensive flow moving forward.<\/p>\n
Speaking of Lauri, the most unprecedented story coming out of this 1-7 start has been the Finnish Star\u2019s efficiency. Of course, we all saw him injure his wrist in the showdown against the Grizzlies, which has had lingering issues due to the dependence on his wrist snap & flick, but this is going to be an integral year for Lauri.<\/p>\n
The drop-off has been stark: he\u2019s averaging 17.1 points per game \u2014 down significantly since his career peak and is converting just 38.7% of his field-goal attempts. The Hardy revolution has completely eradicated Markkanen\u2019s inside-the-arc scoring, having him attempt a wild 8.3 three-point attempts a game.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s also been forced to occasionally shift as a small-ball center due to the banged-up injuries of Jackson Jr. and Nurkic, which was noticeably felt when the Pelicans destroyed the Jazz in the paint during the OT period.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think he\u2019s playing through a lot of pain right now. I think he\u2019s really battling for his teammates and us\u201d, Will Hardy said about Lauri Markkanen on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Of course, Markkanen will not have as wild a slump as he does for the rest of the season. He\u2019ll regain his efficiency. His wrist will eventually heal. Really, it\u2019s just a tough spot to be in when your team\u2019s record is 1-7.<\/p>\n
Utah Jazz vs. Dallas Mavericks\u2014How to Watch:<\/p>\n
Who: Utah Jazz at Dallas Mavericks<\/p>\n
Where: American Airlines Center, Dallas, TX<\/p>\n
When: 7:00pm Mountain Daylight Time<\/p>\n
How to Watch: KJZZ, Jazz+ (in market) or NBA League Pass (out of market)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The sky is falling. The Utah Jazz remain winless thus far in November, on the cusp of a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":487866,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[102,104,103,54221,2849],"class_list":["post-487865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news","tag-jazz-game-preview","tag-utah-jazz-game-coverage"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487865","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=487865"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487865\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/487866"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=487865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=487865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=487865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}