Jordan Clarkson of the Utah Jazz has been fined $15k by the NBA. The fine comes after the December 3rd matchup where the Jazz fell to the division rival, Portland Trail Blazers by a final score of 116-111. The incident occurred with 1.6 seconds left in the fourth quarter. The team drew up a play for Clarkson to try and tie the game. He was eventually stripped by Blazers guard, Anfernee Simons which sealed the game for the Trail Blazers. Simons had a great night as he finished with 45 points and the alluded game-clinching steal for the Portland Trail Blazers, who were on a three-game losing skid. Clarkson finished the night with 24 points after shooting 10-of-26 from the field in the loss for Utah.
Jordan Clarkson Fined For Throwing Headband
Utah’s Recent Struggles
There very well could be some frustration building up with not just Jordan Clarkson, but with the whole team due to the recent struggles after such a promising start to the season. The Utah Jazz were the story of the year to start the season where they found themselves in the first seed of the Western Conference. Since then, they have fallen to the eight seed with a current win-loss record of 14-12. They have lost six of their past eight games.
Things will not be getting easier as they battle the defending champion, Golden State Warriors, on December 7th . Per BetOnline, Utah has +20,000 odds for winning the NBA Finals. In the past 10 games, opponents have shot 35.9 percent from three-point territory. They have also shot 47.5 percent from the field. Utah is also allowing opponents to score 119.5 points per game in the last 10 games, a significant jump from their season average of 115.5 points scored by opponents.
If these numbers say anything, it shows that the defense for the Utah Jazz has started to falter. It also shows that teams around the league are starting to figure out this new-look Utah squad.
Jordan Clarkson’s Season
As for the former Sixth Man of the Year, Jordan Clarkson, he has found himself in an expanded role this season with Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert now out of the picture. He is currently having the best scoring season of his career averaging 19.7 points per game. He has also improved his shooting slightly. Clarkson is shooting from beyond the arc at a rate of 35.0 percent. Not to mention, he also possesses a field goal percentage of 43.2 percent.
Last year, Clarkson shot 41.9 percent from the field to couple with a three-point shooting percentage of 31.8 percent. With this in mind, it makes a bit of sense why Clarkson could be frustrated considering the team has cratered in recent weeks despite him being a more efficient scorer thus far.
The Utah Jazz could still be a play-in team come postseason time. However, the void left by Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert appears to be finally showing its impact. Despite all of this, Utah is still a team to not be overlooked. However, they are no longer a dark-horse Western Conference Finals team like some were saying earlier in the season.