Why the Utah Jazz are no threat whatsoever to the Los Angeles Lakers

2. The Utah Jazz do not have great backcourt defense

The Utah Jazz defense has been really solid this season but it matches up really poorly with the Los Angeles Lakers. The best defender for Utah is Rudy Gobert and we have already established that the Lakers have an advantage in that regard.

Then we start looking at the rest of the Jazz and a lot of questions arise. Most prominently: who is going to consistently guard LeBron James? Guarding LeBron is already enough of a task and the Jazz really don’t have that lockdown wing that is going to contain him.

Not only that, but the backcourt defense is not great on an individual level. The Jazz have done a great job with their team defense, but there certainly are players to target in isolation and get easy buckets for LeBron and AD.

Donovan Mitchell is a really solid offensive player who has taken a step up this season but he is poor defensively. He has a Defensive Box Plus/Minus of -1.1 this season with the third-worst defensive rating on the team (111).

Jordan Clarkson is not a good defensive player and Mike Conley is at the point in his career where he can provide the grit but he is not someone who is going to lock Dennis Schroder down in a seven-game series.

Regular season defense is a lot different than postseason defense (just ask the Los Angeles Clippers from last year) and there are some defensive holes that could bite the Jazz in a matchup against the Lakers.