7-minute scoreless stretch dooms Utah Jazz of their loss to the Celtics

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SALT LAKE CITY — When Jordan Clarkson hit an 8-foot leap shot with 36.2 seconds remaining within the third quarter Tuesday evening, it acquired the Utah Jazz to inside 2 factors towards the juggernaut Boston Celtics.

The subsequent time the Jazz acquired the ball to undergo the ring — a Clarkson layup with 5:34 remaining within the fourth — it acquired them inside 20.

In between, there have been 12 empty possessions.

“That was enjoyable,” head coach Will Hardy quipped afterward.

It was a stretch that successfully sealed the result — a 123-107 defeat.

And each missed shot, each turnover, each wonky possession was as excruciating for the workforce because it was for the impatient and agitated Delta Middle crowd.

“Woooooo! Very a lot irritating!” Collin Sexton exclaimed, shaking his head in disbelief.

That was, fairly universally, the sentiment.

All evening lengthy, the Celtics would surge forward, and the Jazz would present some resilience and battle again and slim the deficit. After which they went seven minutes and two seconds and not using a level. Whereas Boston scored 20 straight.

An enormous a part of the issue, Hardy defined, is how continuously the workforce is now deploying lineups that merely do not have a lot expertise collectively, given the workforce’s commerce deadline machinations and a few subsequent accidents which have collectively wreaked havoc on the rotation.

“I’ve talked on this room a bunch this yr about attempting to get to a spot the place we’re pondering as a gaggle, and we’re all seeing it the identical,” he stated, “and I felt like within the fourth quarter, a few of our stagnation was we simply weren’t all seeing the matchups the identical and recognizing the place the weak factors within the protection is likely to be.”

Maybe the very best instance of that really got here after the Jazz began scoring once more.

With roughly 5 minutes remaining, Sexton acquired remoted on Celtics reserve heart Xavier Tillman, however he waited, and waited, and waited … for John Collins to return and set a display screen.

The issue?

Collins was being guarded by perimeter-defender extraordinaire Jrue Vacation, who promptly switched onto Sexton.

The Jazz salvaged the possession when Sexton referred to as for Collins to return and re-screen, and wound up producing sufficient distance to make a 3-pointer. Hardy however subbed Sexton out on the subsequent stoppage in play simply to debate what had occurred and to drive a degree dwelling.

“We’re principally simply placing the very best defender within the health club on Collin. In that second, that is the place all of us have to acknowledge the identical factor — most likely Collin driving (on) Tillman is our greatest alternative,” Hardy stated.

The extra succinct model?

“I simply stated, ‘Hey, for the remainder of our lives collectively, anyone however Jrue,'” Hardy recounted with a smirk.

Nonetheless, whereas that possession was emblematic of an even bigger downside, it at the least resulted in factors. Too many within the previous minutes have been simply as clunky, and yielded a worse final result.

“The primary purpose for us is attempt to get all 5 guys on the identical web page, pondering the identical approach, figuring out what we need to do as a gaggle. And that comes with reps, clearly,” stated rookie guard Keyonte George, who hit his first 5 pictures of the sport, then went 4-for-12 thereafter.

“It begins with me — I gotta use my voice. If I see one thing happening, and the timeout occurs, we will not simply hear Will’s voice, we have got to listen to a man that is going to battle for the opposite 4 guys on the courtroom.”

The Jazz had loads of battle in them Tuesday evening; they only did not have sufficient outcomes. And because of this, they’ve now misplaced three video games in a row, and 11 of their previous 13, in dropping to 28-37 on the season.

Hardy was requested in his postgame media session if the strain mounting because the scoreless minutes began to build up en masse was a tangible feeling.

He remained quiet for a number of moments earlier than issuing a decidedly deadpan: “Sure.”

Then he elaborated barely, in a chagrined tone of voice.

“Very a lot so, and I’ve 18,000 buddies that jogged my memory.”

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