Utah Jazz: 3 takeaways from Game 5 loss vs. Rockets

3. Poor offensive performance by Utah

One thing that was a big takeaway in the loss in Game 5 for Utah was the fact that it once again reverted to its poor performance shooting the ball on the offensive end of the floor.

Really in every loss in this series, the Jazz have struggled from the field, which is difficult to overcome when facing an offensive powerhouse such as the Rockets.

In Utah’s lone win of the series in Game 4, the Jazz were able to shoot just well enough from the field — mainly from behind the arc — and held Houston in check enough to find that recipe to come away with a win.

In Wednesday night’s Game 5 defeat, Utah reverted back to the first few games of the series where it really struggled from the field.

In this game, the Jazz shot 35-for-94 (37.2 percent) from the field, went 9-of-38 (23.7 percent) from 3 and shot 14-of-19 (73.7 percent) from the free throw line.

While it struggled on its own end, Utah allowed Houston to once again find success offensive on the other end of the floor. The Rockets finished shooting 38-of-81 (44.4 percent) from the field and  13-of-37 (35.1 percent) from beyond the arc, even while keeping James Harden in check for most of the game.

There aren’t many times where you can hold an MVP-caliber player and his team in check for even a short period of time, but the Jazz were able to do that throughout various moments in this series. Unfortunately, they weren’t able to take advantage of that defensive success by turning it into offense on the opposite end of the floor.