Joe Ingles: “We’re not done yet”

The odds are stacked heavily against the Utah Jazz.

While the Golden State Warriors swept the Portland Trailblazers in the first round of the NBA Playoffs, the Jazz endured a seven game battle with the Los Angeles Clippers which ended on Sunday, leaving them only one day rest before taking the floor in the second round.

After playing a major part in their Game 7 win against the Clippers, Utah forward Joe Ingles casually strolled onto the floor in Oracle Arena ready to take on one of the most explosive offensive teams in the league, but after starting the game with a 9-0 run, the Warriors quickly took charge of the game, and from there Utah could never make up any ground.

Maintaining a positive outlook as he sat at his locker after the loss, Ingles said, “We’re not done yet.”

“It’s not the way you want to come out. They got a jump on us at the start of the game and we were chasing uphill for the rest of the game.”

Looking on the positive side Ingles added: “But, there’s a lot of those things that we can control so we’ll go look at the tape and come back on Thursday.”

Taking a heavy loss in the first game of this series was not the way that Utah wanted to start this series, but the feeling in the locker room was positive as they look towards a better outing in Game 2.

“We’re still trying to win, we haven’t given up,” said Ingles. “It’s one game of a seven game series. We need to start better from the start and take it from there.”

Not being able to match the Warriors in transition was one areas in which the Jazz we’re blown out of Game 1.

“It comes off turnovers and long rebounds,” the Australian said. “Whoever was contesting the shot for them was leaking straight out and it’s hard to get back in those situations. We’ve gotta be better at that, and we will be on Thursday.”

Coming straight off a seven game series, Ingles talked about the adjustments that the Jazz need to make as they try to regain composure in this series.

“We just came out of a completely different series against a completely different team, and totally different style of play, so we had 48 hours to adjust,” he said.

“We think we’ll get better as this goes on, but there’s no excuses for starting the way we did.”

When asked about if teams need to play with no margin of error against Golden State, Ingles was quick to respond, “It’s the NBA. They’re all really good teams. Obviously with these guys and the offensive firepower they’ve got. With turnovers, they’re gone the other way and it’s hard to get back.”

Emphasizing his point, Ingles said, “Looking after the ball and taking good shots is key.”

One key part of the Utah offense this season has been getting the ball up the floor quickly to get a jump on the defense, but with the speed that the Golden State defense moves, this played problems with Quinn Snyder’s game plan.

“Even when we had an advantage, they switch so much that advantage gets taken way,” Ingles remarked. “We got a big stagnant and just came out of a completely different series. We’ll get better as this goes on and read the way that they play, and how they are defending us ….. we need to be better defensively”

Game 2 between the Utah Jazz and Golden State Warriors takes place at Oracle Arena this Thursday.