Rudy Gobert dominated the early parts of the Jazz-Nuggets series in the paint. He shot over 75% and scored nearly 20 PPG in the first 4 games of the series.

Since? Different story. Some of that is smart DEN adjustments. But some is also Rudy just not doing enough. Thread:

We'll use G6 as the example. Gobert had just 1 offensive rebound in 42 minutes; he took it right back up for a weak, low-chance putback attempt:

He had an easy putback opportunity here, but didn't jump or protect the ball, and a player 8 inches shorter than him whacked it away:

Here's that same far shorter player, Torrey Craig, successfully boxing out Gobert 1-on-1 for several consecutive seconds:

Gobert was going up strong for these kinds of plays earlier in the series, dunking or getting fouled - instead he takes a weak layup attempt, blocked into oblivion, then loses another battle with people shorter than him on an ensuing OREB:

Another slow, cautious layup attempt where he'd been dunking these looks through much of the rest of the series:

Michael Porter Jr. should not be this kind of rim deterrent for a man Gobert's size. Instead of dunking or taking contact, slows down for a terrible hook shot - then has the ball poked out yet again on the OREB:

Is Rudy Gobert the main reason the Jazz lost last night? Nope! He might not even be in the top 3.

But he's their foundation. They need him to dominate games, not be a passenger in them. They just need more than what we saw last night - from him and several others.