A fog machine with a mind of its own, a broken clock and a Jazz blowout loss to the Thunder

The Utah Jazz were so bad on Sunday night...

(How bad were they?!)

They were so bad, even the arena gave up!

The Utah Jazz were so bad on Sunday night...

(How bad were they?!)

They were so bad that when the fans started to leave, the game clock packed up and went with them!

All jokes aside, haven’t the Jazz and Oklahoma City Thunder been through enough?

Let’s not forget that the last time there was a major delay at a Jazz vs. Thunder game, the NBA shut down.

Thankfully, all delays and arena malfunctions on Sunday were resolved and eventually play was resumed, but it made for a strange and disjointed viewing experience.

In a fog

First, small puffs emanated from the artificial fog machine attached to the stanchion on the south side of the Delta Center court as the game tipped off on Sunday evening.

There was clearly something wrong with the machine, as the puffs continued to pop up intermittently through the early minutes of the game, but it was so minor and insignificant that it wasn’t a distraction. Hardly anyone noticed.

But with just over six minutes left in the first half, the small puffs became a constant geyser by the basket as the Thunder were playing at the rim and shooting free throws.

The officials had to stop the game. It marked the first delay of the night.

A couple of minutes later, the fog stopped and the issue seemed to have resolved itself, but after play resumed for just 34 seconds, the geyser of fog returned.

An arena staffer eventually made their way to the stanchion and unplugged the system. Finally, the fog monster was vanquished.

Off the clock

A broken clock is right twice a day, but a non-existent clock in a basketball game is completely unheard of, and for good reason.

The first-half fog mishap behind them, the Jazz and Thunder thought the rest of the night would run smoothly. Oh, how wrong they were.

Just a minute into the second half the clock stopped working. Then the scoreboard completely reset to zeroes.

Well, time and score are particularly important things to know for players, coaches, fans in the arena and even fans watching at home.

Eventually, after several minutes of trying to fix the issue, Marque Denmon, the Jazz’s PA announcer, said the clocks were non-operational and that he would be announcing time and score.

“It’s funny, it’s the first time in three-plus years that I’ve even listened to what’s said over the loudspeaker,” Jazz head coach Will Hardy said.

“I wouldn’t even know really what’s being said, but then you have to kind of tune in, because you want to understand where you are in the game.”

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It was extremely disorienting for the players who rely on the score, game clock and shot clock to make nearly every single decision on the court.

It’s how they know what kind of offense they want to run, how much energy to expend, when to reset their offense, what kind of shots are acceptable, if they want to go for 2-for-1 opportunities and on, and on and on.

Behind the scenes, the Tissot clock system was not receiving any data. Resetting that system yielded no results, so the team at the scorers table had to wait for another timeout or stoppage so they could swap out the elaborate system for the backup.

Eventually, they were able to do so and eventually that backup system was loaded the necessary data and the clock started working. About 20 real time minutes and five playing minutes had gone by.

The game

The unfortunate part of the night was that any disorientation or miscommunication caused by the wayward fog machine or non-operational clock could not be blamed for the fact that the Jazz were completely blown out by the Thunder.

The Jazz lost the game in the first quarter, when they were outscored 45-20, before any of the delays happened. They trailed by as many as 42 points and the Thunder eventually sailed to an easy 131-101 win.

The silver lining is that anyone who remembers this game will do so because of the fog and clock and not for the Jazz’s lackluster performance.