The 2021-22 Utah Jazz lost so many double-digit leads that then-coach Quin Snyder ultimately went on a nearly-20-minute rant late in the season to try and convince the media media covering the team that the growing narrative about their lack of clutchness was overstated.
So far in the ’22-23 campaign, new coach Will Hardy has required no such monologues.
It’s not that this team never surrenders leads — it’s that they never seem to believe any deficit is insurmountable.
“It’s just understanding that nothing’s really over — as we’ve seen — ‘til that buzzer sounds,” Nickeil Alexander-Walker explained Thursday night, after the Jazz erased a 13-point third-quarter hole to beat the New Orleans Pelicans 132-129 in overtime.
On this particular occasion, the Jazz were struggling against a Pellies squad motivated not to lose two in a row to the same opponent, following Tuesday’s blowout win by the Jazz. New Orleans came out playing more physical, hitting more shots, grabbing more rebounds.
And when Utah opened the second half a bit sluggishly, the Pels drilled their first five shots out of the break to open that baker’s dozen advantage.
Suddenly snapped into a sense of urgency with the game threatening to get away from them, the Jazz ratcheted up the defensive intensity, hit the boards with purpose, grew more crisp with their offensive execution … and surged into the lead before the period was even over.
“That’s our guys, that’s who they are — they have a big chip on their shoulder,” said Hardy. “And at the same time, they really lean on each other. They’re doing it as a group — it’s not as if they look to one person to lead us, one person to save us; they all just rally around each other and bring their little piece to the game every night.”
To his point, multiple players had instrumental roles in this latest comeback.
Jordan Clarkson’s 17-point outburst in the opening quarter allowed them to keep pace. Malik Beasley’s 3-point shooting later on kept them afloat as they started to wane. Alexander-Walker’s defense in the second half changed the tenor of the game and injected some life into a listless crowd. Walker Kessler became a rim-protecting force that kept Zion Williamson from taking over. Mike Conley steadied the ship in the final minutes with his adept table-setting. And Lauri Markkanen and Clarkson repeatedly got buckets in key moments.
“[These] guys are all built for it — we’ve got a whole team of guys who can make plays down the stretch, and that helps out a lot,” said Conley.
Hardy has made the point throughout the season that because these Jazz don’t have a guy who will average close to 30 ppg, or grab 15 rebounds per night, there needs to constantly be a collective effort.
Everyone needs to pass the ball, everyone needs to crash the boards, everyone needs to set screens, execute the defensive scheme, be cognizant of spacing …
And if they all contribute in those areas, they give themselves a good chance.
“We don’t need anybody to save us, we just need everybody to do their job and participate with the group,” he said. “And I thought tonight was just really representative of that.”
Clarkson noted that communication was flowing on the bench during timeouts — various people giving input on actions they’d seen, bringing over iPads to demonstrate either how best to attack or defend them. And Markkanen said that nobody got rattled by the slow stretches or the deficit, that there was simply a universal mentality of getting on to the next possession.
Several players noted that, with seemingly every game this season being a close one, the Jazz certainly have had plenty of opportunities to hone their clutch chops.
“We’ve been in those situations a lot where we’ve been down and came back — we just never give up,” said Beasley.
“It’s the NBA — we’ve been a part of crazy comebacks, and we’ve had crazy comebacks happen to us,” added Alexander-Walker. “So we understand that playing ‘til the last possession is important, playing together and staying together is important. And over anything, we’ve been staying together pretty well.”
Whatever issues were impacting the Jazz a year ago, it felt like a bit of a fait accompli that when momentum started to slip away, they were going to let go of the rope.
This team, meanwhile, is bringing a different attitude.
“We’re just hungry,” Clarkson said simply. “We just try to fight it out to the end.”
And as a result, they prevailed over a highly-motivated Pelicans team, and wound up with two victories over the West’s No. 1 seed in a span of three days.
Not that they’re dwelling on that.
“Yeah, that should be us. We should be number one,” Beasley boasted. “We got a few losses that hurt us — the Rockets game, the Dallas game, all the games we’ve given up. So we’re not worried about who’s first or not, we’re worried about our team. And that’s how we win games.”
