SALT LAKE CITY – Victor Wembanyama seems to feel right at home in Utah.

The last time the San Antonio Spurs rising star was in Salt Lake City, he hit a rare five-by-five shot. On Tuesday he hung a 30-piece copy. Heck, the Jazz even seemed to welcome him, as the team’s special NBA Cup berth looked a lot more Spurs than Jazz.

Wembanyama had 34 points and seven rebounds as San Antonio pulled away late and posted a 128-115 win over the Jazz at the Delta Center.

Wembanyama was 13 of 23 from the field, hit six 3-pointers and added seven rebounds and three blocked shots.

But for Jazz coach Will Hardy, another great performance from Wembanyama wasn’t the reason the Jazz were eliminated from NBA Cup contention on Tuesday.

“I really think we ultimately beat ourselves tonight,” Hardy said.

He pointed out two glaring problems: turnovers and the lack of offensive rebounds.

The Jazz had 21 turnovers, including 12 live-ball giveaways, leading to 33 points for the Spurs; This number is difficult to overcome.

“We lose far too many balls in the huddle,” said Hardy. “We have way too many turnovers that are eliminated one-on-one, and then we have too many pass and catch losses.”

So the biggest problem with freebies is that there isn’t one big problem.

In the third minute of the game, Keyonte George played the ball out of bounds because John Collins didn’t look at the ball.

After getting into trouble catching and shooting in the second quarter, Brice Sensabaugh decided to go one-on-one with Chris Paul, which ended with the game being stolen from him (Isaiah Collier and George had similar mistakes) .

Several Jazz players fumbled the ball on seemingly easy catches, leading to quick escapes.

“It’s an appetizer tasting with turnovers,” Hardy said. “So it was brought up. It’s brought up again and again. I never fault the guy’s intent because no one wants to make a turnover, but we have to get back to doing the little things.”

Sometimes these “little things” are pretty basic: catching with two hands, making a pass and then throwing, and not just playing one-on-one for fun.

“I feel like there are moments where we get going and things are going well, and we give up some of the things that are the reason things are going well,” Hardy said. “Somehow we’re starting to play a little too much one-on-one. The ball gets stuck a little bit when the ball gets us moving.”

However, Hardy is confident that sales will not be a long-term problem. He said some of it has to do with youth and some of it is just learning how to play together. As for George, who scored 26 points but had six turnovers, Hardy said it was about figuring out how to read the game better.

Despite the turnovers that plagued the team throughout the game, the Jazz were still only down by three points entering the fourth quarter. But then the second problem came to light.

Utah allowed eight offensive rebounds in the final frame, which helped San Antonio pull away in the end.

“There were a few that made a weird jump, but there were also way too many where we didn’t cover the free throw line area,” Hardy said. “I expect that to be a focus for every NBA team given the amount of jump shots that are made. And we just didn’t come up with these balls. … We had too many people under the basket. We don’t have that. We have those two guys around the free throw, which is what we needed.”

And that turned a promising game — the Jazz shot 51% from the field and 37% from 3-point range — into a rout.

“We were our own worst enemy, especially when it came to rebounds and turnovers,” Hardy said.

Lauri Markkanen, who finished with 14 points, had to be taken off the field after clashing knees with Wembanyama late in the game; he didn’t come back. According to The Jazz, the injury was a left knee contusion.