A weird night for Jordan Clarkson and the short-handed Jazz in loss to Kings

That the full-strength Sacramento Kings beat the shorthanded Utah Jazz on Wednesday night is not surprising. But there were a number of things that were strange and abnormal about the way the Jazz played.

Jordan Clarkson went 1 of 14 from the field after going scoreless for the first 47 minutes of the game, the Jazz were 1 of 9 in the first half on corner 3s, they started out the night missing their first four free throws and finished shooting just 52.9% from the charity stripe.

Despite some of the strangeness, there were still some good moments in the Jazz’s 118-101 loss to the Kings.

“There’s a couple games, usually every season, that are just kind of weird and you can’t quite put your finger on it,” Jazz head coach Will Hardy said. “And tonight’s one of those nights where I don’t think that we played terribly. I think we had moments where we shot the ball really poorly. You guys are going to ask about Jordan going 1 for 14. I don’t know. Like, people get struck by lightning too. Weird things happen.”

Clarkson’s first shot of the night was a wide open trey at the top of the arc, where it seemed like the Kings were ultra slow in even considering closing out, and at first, Clarkson was a little confused that he was all alone, with no defender within arm’s reach.

1 of 20

2 of 20

3 of 20

4 of 20

5 of 20

6 of 20

7 of 20

8 of 20

9 of 20

10 of 20

11 of 20

12 of 20

13 of 20

14 of 20

15 of 20

16 of 20

17 of 20

18 of 20

19 of 20

20 of 20

“The first one, I was like, dang, this is the first open shot I’ve had in like two weeks, a little bit too easy,” he said. “I didn’t like the way it was going and then I was already playing mind games in my head.”

Clarkson went on to miss his next 12 shots, front rimming and even air balling shots that he routinely makes. Finally, in the fourth quarter Clarkson decided that things were going a little too weird and just deferred to everyone else.

“They kept telling me to keep shooting, but I was like, no, I need somebody else to shoot this,” Clarkson said.

The Jazz actually finished the night with 32 assists on 38 made shots, which means they were passing the ball and playing some really nice half-court offense through a lot of the game, and the main beneficiary on Wednesday night was Walker Kessler.

The Jazz center, despite being under the weather, finished 10 of 10 from the floor with 25 points, 14 rebounds and five assists.

Even in the losses, Kessler is trying to find the silver linings and know that eventually things will get better for the Jazz.

“Coach is big on having a positive attitude about these kinds of things,” Kessler said. “Understanding that while we’re losing some games, there’s a lot to be learned in those games, and we’ve improved a lot. So for the future it’s encouraging.”