The Jazz are firmly in the middle of a rebuild, but it’s safe to say even they (probably) didn’t mean to tank this blatantly in their Sunday night loss to the Lakers.
Under normal circumstances, the Utah Jazz (4-16 overall) losing a game would not be headline news. But it was the way they lost against the Lakers on Saturday night to secure that 16th defeat that was particularly notable.
Trailing 105-104 with just seconds remaining after LeBron James clanked his ninth missed three-pointer of the night, Jazz head coach Will Hardy sprinted to midcourt to call a timeout and set up a play for a potential game-winner.
The only problem? His timeout actually prevented what would have been a go-ahead basket (and possible game-winner) from Collin Sexton that would have left the Lakers with just 2 seconds left to score their own basket. Even as someone who closely covered the tanking Lakers of the mid-2010s, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen this before:
Utah coach Will Hardy calls timeout after the Lakers' missed 3, with the Jazz having possession down 105-104 with 2.1 seconds left pic.twitter.com/TNu720G5WP
— Khobi Price (@khobi_price) December 2, 2024
Cannot get over this timeout by Utah Jazz coach Will Hardy that took away the game winner from Collin Sexton…
— Josh Reynolds (@JoshReynolds24) December 2, 2024
Absolutely brutal lmao pic.twitter.com/n3TK9vOUHM
The Lakers secured the win by preventing Utah from even getting a shot off after whatever play Hardy drew up in the timeout... which fully cements this as one of the worst timeouts of the NBA season. Or best, if you’re a Jazz fan like our community at SLC Dunk that is rooting for losses as the team looks to secure pole position in the Cooper Flagg derby. The only one that may surpass it at the end of the year is Heat coach Erik Spoelstra calling a timeout he didn’t have a few weeks ago, but even that one didn’t wipe away a potential game-winner.
This is also a funny about-face for Hardy, who just flamed his whole team two weeks ago for a lack of situational awareness after Lakers rookie Dalton Knecht lit them up for a career-high 37. Now, it’s Hardy’s own absence of feel that cost them another tight game, and given that coaches almost never buy into any intentional tank job, it’s safe to say this a) was probably an accident and b) is going to leave Hardy not getting a whole lot of sleep tonight.
To Hardy’s credit, he took responsibility and was apologetic when speaking with reporters after the game:
Will Hardy: "Collin started to retreat, dribble backwards, and I started calling time out. It's obviously loud. The hope would be to have a few more seconds than 2.1 but, yeah, it's tough."
— Andy Larsen (@andyblarsen) December 2, 2024
Hardy, cont.: "I told (Collin) in the locker room, I robbed him of a moment at the end of the game. But you go into those situations, we practice these situations, you have cues and things that you're looking for. It didn't go our way."
— Andy Larsen (@andyblarsen) December 2, 2024
Still, if it ends up securing the Jazz a top draft pick in the loaded 2025 class, it’s fair to say fans may end up forgiving him, as well as go down as a legendary niche moment in franchise lore.
