After starting the season by roaring out of the gates and shocking the basketball world with a 10-3 start and a momentary perch atop the Western Conference standings, the Utah Jazz have come back down to earth.
They’ve gone 9-17 since, and — in the aftermath of Saturday’s heartbreaking loss to the Heat at the buzzer — enter the new year having been handed four consecutive losses.
And yet …
They’re trying to maintain perspective, to not let the stark end results obfuscate everything. Yes, they’ve lost four in a row, but that quartet of defeats have come by a combined margin of just 13 points.
“Yeah, that’s like four one-possession games in a row, so of course it’s tough,” noted Lauri Markkanen.
Well, technically not — they lost to the Spurs by four and to the Warriors by five, before Friday’s and Saturday’s games (a one-point loss vs. Sacramento and then the buzzer-beater against Miami) came down to the final horn. Regardless, his bigger point stands:
They’re upset, they’re miffed, they’re frustrated … they’re just not going to turn a bad stretch into something bigger than they think it is.
They’re just going to drill down into details and get after it.
“We have a great group of guys, so everybody’s still working together, still having fun playing, still doing the proper work,” added Markkanen. “… It’s a tough stretch — we could easily be 4-0 in the last four games, but that’s the NBA, and nobody’s gonna feel sorry for us. So we’ve got to figure out a way to get those wins down the stretch. I’m still confident in our team and what we’re doing.”
He’s not alone.
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Utah Jazz forward Kelly Olynyk (41) looks for an open lane as the Utah Jazz take on the Miami Heat in NBA basketball at Vivint Arena in Salt Lake City on Saturday Dec. 31, 2022.
Star guard Jordan Clarkson noted that the players are “still in good spirits.” Rookie center Walker Kessler agreed that, “I don’t think it’s starting to weigh on us.” Coach Will Hardy said he was incredibly proud of the team for showing poise and resolve and competitiveness in yet another nerve-wracking game.
And yet …
The first-year head coach also found it important to point out that it’s not simply a matter of finding ways to come through when the game is tight in the waning moments.
Seeing a few missed shots go in instead at Golden State doesn’t erase all the miscues. Corralling that one needed defensive rebound in the Sacramento wouldn’t have suddenly meant the rest of the game was fabulous. And if Tyler Herro doesn’t hit that buzzer-beater Saturday night, the Jazz aren’t suddenly without flaw against the Heat, either.
“The margins of winning and losing in this league are incredibly small,” Hardy said. “Being emotional is very easy — anybody can do that — but being able to step back and look at the game with a little bit of a cold heart, that’s what they pay us to do so that we understand what we need to do better every night.
“… There’s still a lot of things that we can improve on as a team. So, losing hurts and it should hurt. We’re here to try and win,” he added. “Our guys are sticking together and competing every day. But it’s really on us as a staff to continue to maintain poise and perspective on what’s actually going on in these games, so we don’t end up over-focusing on a couple of plays that happen at the end of each game.”
Indeed, Clarkson was beating himself up for his 5-for-10 performance at the free-throw line — an effort made only that good even by hitting all three attempts after being fouled on a trey with 14.2 seconds to go. Before that, he was just 2 for 7, including going 0 for 2 with 27.3 seconds remaining and Utah trailing by four.
While his 3.9 free-throw attempts per game this season are by far a career-best, his 80.5% success rate at the line thus far is the fourth-worst single-season mark of his career.
“I just missed ‘em. I don’t know,” Clarkson said afterward. “I think that’s the most free throws I’ve missed [in a game] my nine years playing in the league.”
For now, though, the team will get back to work.
They’ll show up to the Zions Bank Basketball Campus practice facility on Monday morning and delve into tightening up their defensive approach. They’ll focus on having more attention to detail in first halves. And they’ll start preparing some tweaks to the gameplan for Tuesday’s rematch against the Kings at Vivint Arena.
There will be emphasis paid to needed areas of improvement, but otherwise, they’ll try to avoid looking back too much.
“We have a pretty short memory with stuff like this,” Kessler said. “Obviously, right after the game, it’s disappointing, losing on a buzzer-beater like that. But all the games we’ve lost have been within one or two possessions, so in order for us to stay positive, we have to take the positive out of it and be encouraged by that.”
Clarkson concurred, pointing out that the Jazz have “been pretty even-keeled” this season, and that, “I don’t think anybody’s gotten down.”
And given how close they believe they are to turning things around, it behooves them to maintain such a mentality, he added.
“Hey, the story could change,” Clarkson said. “You never know what the basketball gods will give you, what cards they’ll play.”