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NEW JERSEY -- The last time it happened Derrick Favors was six years old, Elton John was killing it on the charts and Bill Clinton was in office.
Utah took part in an NBA rarity on Sunday. The Jazz and Hawks battled it out for four overtimes. Quadruple overtime games are so rare in the NBA that it hasn’t happened since Kevin Johnson’s Suns beat Isaiah Rider’s Blazers 140-139 on Nov, 14 1997.
Gordon Hayward, who led all Jazz players in minutes played, said that you have to keep playing hard no matter how many minutes you play.
"I played 57 minutes, and man, that's a lot of basketball. I could've played 10 more overtimes if I had to," Hayward said. "You're just out there competing, and that's all there is to it. Tomorrow morning will probably be tough, but we're professionals, so you have to just keep playing hard no matter how long it takes."
The three hour, 17-minute game was the third longest in NBA history.
Even though the Jazz lost for the first time in seven tries, Jazz forward Paul Millsap said he still sees positives in the loss.
“We’ll take a moral victory out of this one,” Millsap said. “This was a good ball team we played tonight. They played excellent defense. We just didn’t get it done.”
The Jazz had the last possession at the end of regulation, the first, second and third overtimes, but failed to connect in each period as the clock expired. Atlanta took control of the game in the fourth overtime, pulling away for the 139-133 victory.
There’s no time for this tired Jazz team (26-23) to rest as they head to New Jersey to face former teammate Deron Williams and the New Jersey Nets (16-34) tonight in New Jersey.
The Jazz are looking for a sweep of the Nets who are struggling through the season without their star center Brook Lopez.
Nets coach Avery Johnson told the Newark Star-Ledger that sometimes he wonders what the season would’ve been like with a healthy Lopez.
”I try not to but the human side of me, you tend to do it sometimes,” Johnson said. “I get on the treadmill in the morning and I’m watching replays of games and sometime that thought comes across my mind. If I said, no, I never think of that, I wouldn’t be human.”
Johnson continued, “I’ve seen some games here this year and also last year where Brook’s been pretty special. With him coming in this year making a concerted point to rebound more and defend the paint more, that’s all we talked about in the training camp before the season. So again, with him sometimes I do have those thoughts.”
The Nets are coming off a 102-89 victory over the Charlotte Bobcats on Sunday. Williams scored 19 and dished out 14 assists in the win. The win over Charlotte snapped the Nets’ five-game losing streak.
“It was a good win, a long time coming,” said Williams to the Associated Press. “We’ve needed it for a while, so I’m definitely happy about it.”
Williams has been the most productive player for the Nets this season, averaging 21.9 points and 8.2 assists per game. Newly acquired Gerald Wallace is second on the team in scoring at 14.8 points per contest.
The game takes place at 5:30 p.m. MT at the Prudential Center in Newark, and can be seen on Root Sports.
Jarrod is a freelance writer who writes Jazz previews for KSL.com. You can follow Jarrod Hiatt on Twitter at @jarrodhiatt.
