Jordan Clarkson was finally going to rejoin the Utah Jazz, but the plan wasn’t to fully unleash him.
Clarkson had missed three games with what was originally diagnosed as a thigh contusion, but after coming back to play in two games, he still felt some discomfort and an MRI revealed a hamstring strain, so he missed another six games prior to Saturday when the team cleared him to return to the court against the Toronto Raptors.
Clarkson was put on a minutes restriction and brought off the bench. Though Jazz coach Will Hardy was fully aware of the plan to hold Clarkson back a little bit, that plan went out the window when Clarkson started to go off in the fourth quarter.
Clarkson scored 16 fourth-quarter points and finished with 30 on the night to go with six assists, three rebounds and a steal in a 126-119 comeback win over the Raptors.
“On a little bit of a minutes restriction, which I disobeyed, he came off the bench and he brought great energy,” Hardy said. “It didn’t feel like he’d been gone for a while with the way that he was playing.”
Added Lauri Markkanen about his teammate: “Obviously not an easy thing to do after injury and I don’t know if he was on a minutes restriction or what, but just coming up after a long break and showing that he hasn’t missed a beat.
“We needed him obviously to play at that level tonight and he can do that, so it’s incredible to have him back.”
A lot of times when players miss significant time with an injury, they need a bit of a ramp up period to return to form and to catch up with what the team has been doing while they were out, and although Clarkson had a couple of misses and was a little frustrated early on in the game, he never seemed like he was behind.
“First and foremost, all of us in Utah know that J.C. is not normal,” Hardy said, “so anything that we think a normal player would do this, or a normal person would do that, I don’t assume any of those things with Jordan ... he showed an ability to learn what changed with the team a little bit while he was out.
“I think his experience showed in that way. Younger players maybe would struggle to catch the rhythm of the team the way that Jordan did tonight.”
As the Jazz came back from being down 17 and charged forward, Clarkson was part of a lineup that retook the lead for good in the fourth quarter.
Alongside Markkanen, Walker Kessler, Ochai Agbaji and Kris Dunn, Clarkson made the most out of the tempo of the fourth quarter and took advantage of every opportunity he could.
“The team stuck together and obviously we rode that last group for a long time,” Hardy said. “We had a couple of guys who played like 19 or 18 straight minutes. That was just because I felt like that group had a great rhythm. They had good energy.
“That’s a moment where, as the coach, you’re trying to stay out of the way and not ruin a good thing, so credit to the team. They’ll get to enjoy the next two days with their families.”
The Jazz will return home and have the next few days off over the Christmas holiday before going back out on the road, first to face the San Antonio Spurs on Tuesday and then the New Orleans Pelicans on Thursday.