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HOUSTON — The ball finally didn't bounce Utah's way.
Jordan Clarkson lost the ball out of bounds with 26.8 seconds left in regulation, which set the stage for a new result for the 2022-23 Utah Jazz: a loss.
The Utah Jazz are unbeaten no more, falling to the Houston Rockets 114-108 Monday at Toyota Center.
"It's a long season," said Clarkson, who scored 17 points to lead the Jazz, but was 0-of-3 in the final two minutes. "We weren't going to go 82-0. Sooner or later we were going to take a loss. I think we all handled it well."
So how did Jazz coach Will Hardy handle his first NBA loss?
"I just screamed and yelled and went bananas. Yeah, it was crazy — throwing stuff," Hardy said in an obviously sarcastic tone. "No, I told them what I just told you guys that we played flat in the first half. We responded well in the second half."
Utah was playing on the second night of a back-to-back and for the third time in four days. Throw in two overtime games over that period and it was a recipe for some tired legs.
The Jazz looked like they were moving in mud in the first half, and one stat was needed to highlight that: They only had two offensive rebounds in the first half. Utah's calling card has been to out-hustle and out-compete other teams this season; they just didn't have the same juice early in Houston.
"Yeah, that was the only number they needed to hear to know that we just weren't flying around and being as active as we needed to be," Hardy said.
The loss put an end to an improbable start to the season that saw the Jazz defeat three teams projected to be in the playoffs. Yet it was the young Rockets, which got their first win of the year on Monday, that were able to solve the Jazz — or at least the tired version of them.
Utah was held to 47% shooting and committed 20 turnovers.
"It's hard to win in the NBA with 20 turnovers," Hardy said. "There were times where we played a little bit fast. There were times where our spacing got a little bit clunky, especially in the first half. I thought in the second half our guys responded and came out with a different energy and a different physicality."
Utah found an offensive rhythm in the second half and shot 50% from 3-point range and overall, and scored 63 points.
During the surprising start to the season, Hardy applauded his team for finding new ways to win. And they almost found another one on Monday: Simone Fontecchio.
The 26-year-old rookie had 13 fourth-quarter points and went 3-of-5 from the 3-point range.
The Jazz just couldn't come up with one more critical stop in the final minutes.
Mike Conley tied the game with a driving layup with 1:37 left to complete an 11-2 run for Utah to give itself the chance at the end. But the Jazz didn't score again.
Eric Gordon gave the Rockets the lead with his own layup; and Conley, Clarkson and Kelly Olynyk all missed out on chances to extend the game on the other end, which led to Utah's first defeat.
"We had a chance to win tonight, too, even with a bad start. We still had a chance," Clarkson said.
So no, Hardy didn't scream or throw things after Utah's first loss; he had just more reasons to be excited for the future.
"It's been a great road trip," he said. "We have a lot of guys who contributed to tonight's game. And we're learning a lot about our team as we go."
