The Utah Jazz had a moment of self-reflection as they left Washington, D.C., last week. A loss to the Wizards had left the NBA’s first-place team upset, frustrated with their slipping defensive effort and recent performances. For Rudy Gobert and his team, it was time to take a hard look in the mirror.
“I think that Wizards game, really, we all kind of looked at ourselves and realized the picture we were looking at was ugly,” Gobert said. “I think it woke us up in a way. We saw that wasn’t the team we wanted to be. We want to be a team that takes every single defensive possession seriously, that doesn’t want to give anything easy away to the other team, and a team that plays together.