Despite the defeat, Will Hardy welcomes the awakening of his players

Defeated heavily in Los Angeles last Tuesday (-14) and then crushed at home by the Thunder (-32), the Jazz put on a much more conquering face last night against the lakers. Utah even offered itself a chance to win with a last-ditch shot from Keionte George after a sudden attempt at containment.

Leading by 11 points with 3 minutes remaining (94-105), the Californians seemed to be well on their way to ending the night in Utah. It was without counting the awakening of a Lauri Markkanen who until then had not shown much in the match.

He and Keyonte George, the author of 12 of his 20 points in the final period, would be the key protagonists of a 17-5 run signed in the final minutes of the game for the Lakers’ return to level. “ I am proud of the fight that the team put up in the money time. Many great works were done. A lot of good reading has been done. It just wasn’t enough to win », regret Will Hardy.

Frustration to be qualified, because jazz came back out of nowhere. But the home team managed to get a match point. With seconds left, Keyonte George had one last shot in the corner that ended up too short to knock the Californians down. His team’s leading scorer in the game (27 points), the leader/guard was grabbed by Marcus Smart on a throw-in, fell to the ground before regaining his skin.

Will Hardy called a timeout, to no avail

« I tried to get the ball. We ended up getting… not a great shot, but at least we got to try », note the person concerned. « It looked to me like Keyonte was fouled before the ball was put into play. But that didn’t happen », his coach notes about this contact, which was not sanctioned. Will Hardy also had a final timeout but was unable to take it.

« it’s noisy. I called ‘time out’ twice while the ball was in play. But then again, when he came in and Keyonte scored, so be it. It happens in 2.2 seconds. He managed to shoot. So yeah, it’s a tough time because it gets a little chaotic when Keyonte hits the ground », describes the coach.

He recalls not taking a timeout after LeBron James’ missed three-pointer with 40 seconds left, followed by a Jazz transition that ended with Lauri Markkanen’s game-winning shot.

The Finn who had the opportunity to restore the advantage to his team with a shot from the free throw line. ” So we did a lot of good things to give ourselves a chance to win. And it just didn’t go in our favor », puts the coach in perspective.

A similar speech by his player, who does not want to stop on this last possession: ” At the end of the day, we don’t want the match to be decided in the hands of the referees. There were a lot of things in the first half that we could have controlled. (…) So if we can produce two complete halves, we won’t be in this situation. Obviously, there’s a little bit of frustration, we lost. But I’m not mad about the last action. I’m mostly mad at myself and our group for taking 24 minutes to get going. »