Jazz hold team meeting after Gobert's scathing comments

The last couple weeks of the regular season is not when playoff-bound teams would typically prefer to be holding emergency meetings, but the Utah Jazz did just that after center Rudy Gobert gave his teammates a tongue-lashing following Saturday's loss to the Los Angeles Clippers.

"We discussed everything. I think it was good to talk to each other," Gobert told reporters at shootaround Monday, according to Jody Genessy of the Deseret News. "It's never going to be perfect. It's great to communicate as a team."

The Jazz sit a game up on the Clippers in the race for home-court advantage in a probable 4-5 first-round matchup, but the Clippers' win clinched them the head-to-head tiebreaker, while handing the Jazz their fourth loss in five games.

Gobert, perhaps the leading candidate for Defensive Player of the Year, called out his team for not competing, particularly at the defensive end.

"Some of us just think about scoring," he said. "That's what it is."

With the benefit of time, and the forced team-wide communication, Gobert had softened somewhat by Monday morning.

"I was just frustrated after the game," he said.

"It wasn't targeting somebody particular. It was more about the team. Maybe I didn't choose the best words. It made it look like I was picking on people, but not really. It was more our attitude as a team."

The Jazz had better be on the same page now, or their final nine games could be ugly. Between now and season's end, they'll get the red-hot (and playoff-desperate) Trail Blazers twice, the world-beating Spurs twice, and the Warriors and Wizards once apiece.

Even Monday night's comparatively favorable matchup against the New Orleans Pelicans won't be a picnic. But it'll give Gobert - who will be tasked with stifling Anthony Davis and DeMarcus Cousins - a chance to put his money where his mouth is.