The Utah Jazz self-destructed in the fourth quarter once again during their game against the Phoenix Suns two nights ago. While the Suns are easily the best team in the NBA through the regular season, the Jazz had them relegated to almost-certain defeat at the end of the third quarter when they led the game 92-75.
However, another historic fourth-quarter collapse saw the Suns outscore the Jazz 36-13 in the fourth quarter and pick up their 64th win of the season. The Jazz meanwhile could fall to 6th in the Conference on the final day of the season, as they lead the Nuggets via tiebreaker despite identical records.
The star duo of Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert spoke about the issues the team is facing in the fourth quarter and discussed how they will tackle this going into the NBA Playoffs next week.
In their last 3 losses, the Jazz have been outscored by 51 points in the 4Q.
105-54. pic.twitter.com/fHd5XnU8Tw
— StatMuse (@statmuse) April 9, 2022
“It can be a mental thing, it can be. I’m not gonna speak for everybody else when I say [this] — I don’t feel like it’s that way for us. We just play tense,” he said. “… You can sit here and say, ‘Oh, it’s mental’ — it may feel that way, it damn sure feels that way in the arena. But if we go there, then we’ve already lost the game at that point,” said Mitchell.
“I think we do overthink a little bit in the fourth, in crunch time, when we’re up 17 and they creep back to 10, and then to four, and then they tie the game,” said Gobert.
Both players have addressed the issue and put it out into the open heading into the playoffs. However, is there enough time left for the team to rectify these issues and be competitive in the Playoffs?
Their first-round matchup will be against either the Dallas Mavericks or the Golden State Warriors, with there being no room for error against either opponent.
