Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
NEW ORLEANS — Will Hardy sat down at the podium carrying a combination of relief, probably a bit of surprise, and definitely some joy.
"You guys having fun yet?" he asked.
How could any Jazz fan not be?
Midnight hasn't struck yet on the Utah Jazz's dream start. Kelly Olynyk made sure of that.
The veteran center barreled in for a scooping layup with 3.1 seconds left to play in overtime to give Utah a 122-121 win over the New Orleans Pelicans Sunday at Smoothie King Arena.
The Jazz are now a stunning 3-0 — and have taken down three teams projected to be in the Western Conference playoffs. Not a bad start for a first year coach and a supposedly tanking team.
Lauri Markkanen finished with 31 points and 12 rebounds to lead the Jazz, Olynyk had 20 points and five assists, and Clarkson finished with 18 points and six assists.
"I'm having a blast. This has been everything I've dreamed of and more," Hardy said. "There are some moments where I wish we could blow the game open and win by a lot, but that's just not the NBA."
It definitely wasn't on Sunday.
The Jazz pushed their lead to 17 points early in the fourth quarter before CJ McCollum willed a Pelicans comeback. Utah went over six minutes of game time without a point and allowed New Orleans to take the lead with 1:26 left in the game.
The fact the Jazz were able to go on that type of stretch and still come out with a win only adds to the list of surprises that came from Sunday, and that list is getting pretty long.
Who had Rudy Gay locking up Zion Williamson in the post on consecutive possessions? How about Jarred Vanderbilt, who had hit just three 3-pointers in his career heading into Sunday, draining two long balls in the first half?
Or what about Markkanen looking like Kevin Durant on his way to a 20-point half? Or Jordan Clarkson morphing into not just a capable facilitator, but a darn good one? Or an errant pass that looked to be a sure turnover turning into Clarkson's game-tying 3-pointer in the final minute of regulation.
"Guys are playing hard and playing the right way, playing together and unselfish," said Olynyk, who scored 20 points on Sunday. "It's been really fun to play the first three games, knowing that preseason and training camp, we were just thrown together."
It was Olynyk that had the final surprise of the night.
With 8.1 seconds left in overtime and the Jazz trailing by a point, Hardy put the ball in Olynyk's hand.
"He's able to read whether he should hand it off or keep it, and so we tried to put him in the middle of the floor with Lauri and Mike (Conley) cutting across the top of him," Hardy said. "Kelly knew that he had choices."
McCollum, who had just hit a rainbow floater to give New Orleans the late lead, switched onto Olynyk — likely assuming the Jazz wouldn't have him take the last shot. Olynyk immediately recognized the mismatch and attacked down the lane. He put a scooping layup shot up over McCollum that dropped right in.
"We were just trying to jumble their defense, trying to find a little bit of an opening, confuse them a little bit," Olynyk said. "... Everybody fanned out and I thought I had a lane, and I took it."
The plan was to get Olynyk the ball, yes, but even Hardy didn't foresee the ending.
"He's a bit of a magician sometimes with the ball," the Jazz coach said. "I'm not sure that the scoop down the middle of the lane was what we saw coming."
You'd be hard pressed to find anyone anywhere that would have foreseen a 3-0 start, either.
So, to echo Hardy, you having fun yet?
