Coming into tonight, the Jazz had had their two worst defensive performances of the season in their last two games: a 119.6 defensive rating against the Bucks on Monday night, and a 113.3 DRtg against the Pelicans at home on Saturday. Of course, there was a really logical reason: Rudy Gobert didn’t play either game.
So it’s mildly discouraging that when Gobert did come back, the defense didn’t get better. The Jazz’s defensive rating tonight was actually 119.8, just barely eclipsing the Bucks’ performance. And perhaps even more discouraging was that the Jazz’s defense was at its worst with Gobert in the game, when the defensive rating was 128.