The Utah Jazz saw their season come to an end on Friday night. Despite securing the best record in the NBA during the regular season, and despite the Los Angeles Clippers being without the services of Kawhi Leonard for the last two games, Utah lost four in a row en route to a 4-2 series defeat in the Western Conference Semifinals.
It was quite the accomplishment for the Clippers, particularly young guard Terance Mann, who had a career night in the Game 6 win. But for the Jazz, it was an abrupt end to a year that had legitimate championship aspirations. Beyond that, it was the fifth season in a row in which Utah could not advance past the conference semifinals.
These sorts of things lead to plenty of frustrated individuals, and in his end of the year press conference, standout center Rudy Gobert expressed that a number of things made him upset with the way their loss to the Clippers went down.
Rudy Gobert: “Obviously we had higher expectations than losing in the second round. Losing 4 in a row is something we didn’t do during the season. … You try to ask yourself the right questions about what we can do so it stops happening.”
— Eric Walden (@tribjazz) June 19, 2021
Rudy Gobert said that he needs to take some time “to clear my mind, because there’s a lot of things that bother me” about how the season ended.
— Eric Walden (@tribjazz) June 19, 2021
As for what, in particular, rubbed him the wrong way, Gobert did not dive into specifics. He did, however, point out that he wasn’t happy with the defensive effort his team showed against L.A.
Rudy, on what the Jazz need defensively: “It takes a team effort, it takes five guys to defend. … Everyone on their team raised their level, and it was hard for us to guard them. … Defensively, they were doing a better job than we did with the weapons they had.”
— Eric Walden (@tribjazz) June 19, 2021
Rudy, on the dfense: “The problem is if I don’t come and help, we give up layups. … The gameplan was for us to let Terance Mann shoot rather than letting Reggie Jackson or PG get layups. We tried to adjust with full rotations. They played perfectly on almost every possession.”
— Eric Walden (@tribjazz) June 19, 2021
Gobert certainly was not blameless for losing in Game 6 — he had 12 points, 10 rebounds, and zero blocks while the Clippers looked content to play 5-on-4 on the perimeter as he patrolled the paint — but seeing as how he said he planned on showing up to the Olympics for France with the Larry O’Brien trophy, it’s pretty obvious he had a title-or-bust approach to this postseason. The team came up short, and as a result, they’re heading home early and the Defensive Player of the Year wants to chew over what happened.