BOSTON — The way the Utah Jazz see it, they gritted out an impressive win against an impressive team in a difficult environment on Monday night in response to a string of games that had them feeling embarrassed.
The way the Boston Celtics see things is entirely different. In their view, the game was stolen from them by negligent officials.
“You can’t have a mistake like that — as an official at that point in the game," Jaylen Brown said. “It’s the fourth quarter, minute left in the game or less, and the whole staff blows the (expletive) call. Cost us a game. It’s unacceptable.”
The play in question happened with 47 seconds left in. Keyonte George slipped on a wet spot on the court, and Brown also slipped, dribbled the ball off George’s leg and then fell over the sliding George.
While nearly everyone in the building (save the officials) believed there was going to be a whistle coming for a foul on George, there wasn’t and rookie Walter Clayton Jr. gathered the loose ball with Lauri Markkanen scoring on the other end for a 103-102 Jazz lead.
Moments later, after Neemias Queta went 1 of 2 from the free throw line to tie the game for Boston, Jusuf Nurkic hit the game winning putback and Elijah Harkless drew an offensive foul to seal the 105-103 win for the Jazz.
The difference in reactions to the ending makes sense for these teams. For the Celtics, every win matters. They’re a team fighting to stay atop the league despite their star player, Jayson Tatum, watching from the sidelines.
There are postseason expectations for this team. For them, it matters if an end-of-game call changes the result of a game.
But, had there been a foul call made on George, had the Celtics extended their lead over the Jazz at the free throw line and just barely managed to beat the Jazz in the final moments, the Jazz would still have been happy with the way they played.
The result wouldn’t have mattered, but the way they lost would have mattered greatly.
The Jazz aren’t a team that is pressured with postseason expectations. The expectations for them are smaller, though still monumentally important.
Head coach Will Hardy is expected to find players who can grow and improve and learn to play winning basketball, and the players are expected prove that they’re worth their spot.
In recent days, losses have come for the Jazz as a result of lackadaisical starts, sloppy offense, and lethargic defense, but on Monday night in Boston, the Jazz responded to those losses with energy, pressure and fight.
That’s a win for the Jazz, no matter what the score says.
What’s more, the Jazz didn’t do it being carried by a 50-point performance from Markkanen. They didn’t do it because of one player having a hot hand.
They did it because nearly every player on the court took pride in their individual assignments, while thinking about what was best for the team.
“So many guys I feel like played well and had big moments,” Hardy said. “It’s a great team win for us. That’s who we have to be. We’re going to have to win ugly. We’re going to have to win close. We’re going to have to have a lot of people have moments in the game for us to win.”
There was the winning play from Nurkic and numerous important moments from Harkless, a two-way player who played tough defense until the final buzzer sounded.
Keyonte George was level-headed and controlled on both sides of the court. Clayton had the best game of the season so far, and Kyle Filipowski, on the heels of losing his starting spot, made huge, timely plays that kept the Jazz from falling too far behind.
If all of those things had happened and a foul call changed what the final score looked like, the Jazz would still be proud of the way they responded to the last week.
As Hardy said, this is what it needs to look like if they want to win games, but if they want to establish a culture and identity for this young team, it’s also the way they need to lose games.
“I think all of us took pride today,” George said. “We all realize we’re all young, and there’s no reason why our energy level should be as low as it was last game. We felt like we just shot ourselves in the foot last night.
“The good thing about the NBA is you got another chance either the next day or two days. We kind of just took the opportunity, and, you know, I talk about respecting the game. We actually respected the game.”
The Jazz are now 3-4 on the season and will continue this road trip with games in Detroit and Minnesota before returning home.