Three thoughts on the Utah Jazz’s 123-119 overtime loss to the New Orleans Pelicans from Salt Lake Tribune Jazz beat writer Andy Larsen.
1. CJ McCollum scores 45 to push Pelicans to largest-ever comeback win
The Pelicans had never come back from a 25-point deficit in a game before — until tonight.
These are pretty ideal circumstances for a comeback, though. The 25-point lead came very early in the game, and of course there’s the reality that the Jazz aren’t trying to win games right now. As a result, they finished the game with their youngest lineup.
Some of the expected lack of experience definitely showed: players drove into congested traffic and threw up shots that didn’t have a prayer. Kyle Filipowski airballed a wide open corner three. Only Walker Kessler seemed nonplussed on offense near the end, but Kessler can’t have the ball in his hands, given he’s a center, so his contributions only mattered so much.
The biggest difference maker, though, was on the defensive end. There, the Jazz allowed 61 points in the second half to the Pels, including 13 points in OT. CJ McCollum had 45 points — it’s his third-highest scoring performance of his career.
And the Jazz, especially their young players, simply have to raise their level in order to be competitive against reasonably talented scorers. Take Isaiah Collier’s defense here, it’s too lackadaisical.
Here he comes off a Daniel Theis screen, and Kessler probably is just playing too deep here when Theis isn’t rolling. McCollum shooting the three is more dangerous.
I support the Jazz playing the young guys, and it’s probably good for the Jazz’s franchise future that they lost this game. The experience of playing good scorers like McCollum late in the game will be helpful, too — though lots of improvement still must be made.
2. Taylor Hendricks' return to the road
Taylor Hendricks, after his broken leg is back to traveling with the Jazz, which is a big milestone for the young forward. For one, he’s much more ambulatory than before, when he relied on a knee scooter to get around. Now, he’s wearing a boot, which allows him to walk and, for example, board an airplane.
The Jazz feel like having Hendricks around as much as possible is a great thing for both the second-year forward and the team.
“He’s at every shootaround and every practice, the film sessions, pre-game, post-game, team dinners. I think it’s lifted his spirits ... I never thought his spirits were down, but you do see this jolt of energy being around the group again,” Hardy said.
Watching Hendricks on the bench, it’s been fun to see him react to Brice Sensabaugh’s growth, too. The two, along with fellow rookie Keyonte George, have developed a chemistry together — but Hendricks and Sensabaugh are particularly close thanks to their shared Florida ties. When Sensabaugh scores, Hendricks is boisterous on the bench.
“Those guys have a great relationship. Taylor’s done a really good job in this moment of kind of elevating his voice. He was never super talkative his rookie year, at least in front of me, but I’ve noticed so many more moments in team settings where he’s talking a lot,” Hardy said. “I think he’s more comfortable with himself.”
He is still relatively quiet with media, which showed in an appearance on tonight’s broadcast, but that’s understandable. When I asked him about his return to the team, he said simply, “It’s great. We all have a good relationship with each other, so you know being with them (on the road) is a lot of fun.”
Hendricks will be out for the rest of the year, a return for summer league also looks unlikely. But getting him back as soon as possible on the court, on a developmental track, will be important for his future success.
3. Will Hardy and Washington Commanders football coach Dan Quinn
The Smoothie King Center was nearly empty for tonight’s game, thanks to a number of factors. No. 1 was the weather: New Orleans is slated to receive three inches of snow tomorrow, and they are definitely not ready for that. (My flight out has already been delayed to Wednesday, for example, and the Jazz rushed out of the arena as quickly as possible after the overtime Monday. I will acknowledge that I think this is somewhat funny as a lifelong Utah resident, but also understand that this area hasn’t seen snow in a decade.)
But another was the city’s love affair with football — they simply care much more about both professional and collegiate football than the NBA. With tonight’s college football championship on TV, certainly at least some Pelicans fans decided to just stay home and watch the higher-importance game rather than brave the (relative) cold for two tanking teams.
Pregame, there was a football conversation of another type, though. Will Hardy was asked if he was a Washington Commanders fan (thanks to his roots in Virginia), but it turns out Hardy has a much more direct connection to that team.
This summer, Hardy spent a couple of days with the Commanders and coach Dan Quinn, trying to learn as much as possible from another sport’s leadership. He said the time was eye-opening, and called Quinn “one of the coolest leaders I’ve been around in coaching.”
“I think DQ has a very unique style. He clearly has the respect of the room, but he does it in a way where he seems very approachable and has very authentic relationships with his players and his staff. It’s not the authoritarian style of coaching that maybe we saw 20 years ago,” Hardy said. “His energy and his presence is something that I strive to have with our group. I obviously have to do it in my own voice. But watching how he elevates the level of energy in the room was really, really inspiring.”
Hardy and Quinn stay in contact, texting each other throughout the season, including as the Commanders go on this playoff run. Hardy noted that developing honest relationships between coaches across sports might be easier than those among basketball coaches alone.
“When you do that within your own sport, there’s always a little bit of guarding, because maybe one day you’ll be competitors. I don’t think DQ and I will ever coach a game against each other,” Hardy said. “So it’s cool, because you can both just let the guard down totally and share very openly.”
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