PHOENIX — The Utah Jazz never led Saturday afternoon, had a horrible shooting performance and were missing a lot of players — John Collins (left hip injury), Jordan Clarkson (plantar fasciitis), Keyonte George (left heel inflammation), Brice Sensabaugh (conditioning post illness), Johnny Juzang (right hand fracture).
Even so, they battled with the Phoenix Suns all the way to the final buzzer. The Suns ended up with the 114-106 win but were forced to play their best players — Devin Booker, Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal — all the way to the final seconds because the Jazz wouldn’t let up.
That’s been the prevailing theme over the last few weeks. Though the Jazz continue to rack up losses, they have been extremely competitive no matter who the opponent is.
They’ve lost three straight and are now 9-28 on the season.
Cold shooting
As head coach Will Hardy looked at the box score following the game, he couldn’t help but think — What if the Jazz played this same game over again? What if his team had played exactly the way they had on Saturday and generated the same shots? They’d probably be more likely to win than lose.
“It was a really rough shooting night from 3 for our whole group,” he said. “If you had told me that we were going to come in here against this team tonight, we were going to win the possession game, we were going to win points in the paint, we were going to win second chance points, they were going to make 25 non-rim 2s and we were going to miss 33 threes, I’d say that sounds like a tough night.”
That was the case on Saturday as the Jazz went 9-of-42 from 3-point land with Lauri Markkanen going 3-of-12, Svi Mykhailiuk hitting just 1-of-8, Kyle Filipowski missing all five of his 3-point attempts and Collin Sexton hitting just 1-of-6 from beyond the arc.
It was an uncharacteristic performance and one the Jazz aren’t going to put much stock in, especially since they were good shots for the most part.
Since Hardy took over head coaching duties for the Jazz in 2022, they have only had nine games that they have shot under 22% from 3, and Saturday was one of those nine games.
Cody Williams’ homecoming
Thought Cody Williams was born in California, the Jazz rookie grew up in Gilbert, Arizona, and went to Perry High School, which is just 33 miles from the Suns’ arena.
In fact, through a number of different events, Williams played on the court at the Footprint Center several times through elementary and high school.
“It was kind of nice to be back and playing in a familiar gym,” Williams said.
In front of his family, friends and even his high school coach, Williams had his most productive game of the season against the Suns. He scored a season-best 13 points to go with two rebounds and two assists in 22 minutes off the bench.
He is continuing to get more comfortable with his shot and is feeling more confident taking shots now that Hardy is starting to call plays for him. Hardy said he’s incredibly happy with the progress Williams has made in the last few months and just wants him to keep letting them fly.
“Cody’s done a really good job of sticking with the process of it all, even though early in the year he hasn’t shot the ball great,” Hardy said. “I think Cody has done a good job of maintaining a good head space as it relates to it.
“My concern would be if he stopped shooting them and just kind of became one of these guys that always drives the ball when he gets it, but he’s making good reads and it’s nice to see him have a little bit of success.”
Fun on the broadcast
For the fans that were watching at home, there were some really great moments on Saturday.
Jordan Clarkson joined Craig Bolerjack and Thurl Bailey through nearly the entirety of the second quarter. While he was commenting on the game and cheering on his teammates, he also touched on Patty Mills and John Collins as veteran voices who mean a lot to the Jazz, on Sexton’s growth as a player and what he has seen from some of the younger players on the roster.
Later, sideline reporter Lauren Green checked in with Perry High School coach Sam Duane, who was Cody and Jalen Williams’ coach and got to hear about the pride that Duane has in being able to watch these players on the NBA stage after having gone through his program.