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DALLAS — To some fans, it could be considered a nearly perfect game; some of those fans just may reside in the Utah Jazz front office.
The Jazz were without three starters and had a chance to slide out of a play-in position all the way near the bottom of the Western Conference standings.
So, naturally, the ever-feisty Jazz found themselves with the lead with three minutes left in the game against a Dallas team that sees itself as a Finals contender.
"I thought our team deserved to win," Jazz coach Will Hardy said.
Deserved to ... maybe, but ultimately Utah fell to Dallas 120-116 at American Airlines Center and dropped the Jazz to 31-35 on the season. That's the third worst record in the Western Conference; and if the draft lottery was held today, the Jazz would have the eighth-best odds.
But that wasn't the story after the game for this Utah Jazz team — the one that has exceeded all expectations through the first 60-plus games and nearly found a way to win again on Tuesday.
The Jazz came into Dallas on a three-game losing streak that seemed to indicate their season was on life support. The roster had been decimated — some by the front office's own doing, some by injuries.
There was no Jordan Clarkson (finger strain), no Walker Kessler (non-covid illness), and no Collin Sexton (hamstring strain). That meant Utah had to rely on a heavy dose of players who weren't in the rotation during Utah's early season success — or not on the team at all.
Utah was nearly a 10-point underdog on Tuesday; and with how the past three games had gone, even that appeared generous. Even in a loss, the Jazz got up from the mat and threw a punch that showed that maybe they won't go quietly into lottery land. It seems the team may have some wins in them yet.
After the game, Lauri Markkanen was bleeding from his bicep and had a hand wrapped in ice, and the sore back that caused him to miss Sunday's game in Oklahoma City was anything but fully healthy. Yet, he gutted out a 33-point night and there were large portions of the game where he looked like the best player on the court.
That's saying something considering who was on the other side.
Kyrie Irving had 33 points — including 17 in the fourth quarter — and Luka Doncic had 29 for the Mavericks.
"I think he's continuing to learn each game when he has a size advantage," Hardy said of Markkanen. "And the size, he doesn't always have to get around people, sometimes he can just bump with his shoulder and play over the top, and I thought he did a pretty good job of that tonight."
Markkanen was 12-for-20 from the field and scored 19 points in the first half alone. He dragged Utah out of a 14-point deficit to tie the game at 59-59 at halftime.
"I'm hard on Lauri," Hardy said. "I expect a lot from him."
And he expects a lot from himself, too.
That is why after the game he was lamenting his four missed free throws ("that's the game right there"), and a bad read late in the fourth quarter that led to his 3-point attempt getting blocked.
"I take responsibility for that," he said. "We can get a better one than that; that's a crucial point of the game. I've got to read the situation better."
Utah took a 108-107 lead with 3:41 left on a corner 3-pointer from Ochai Agbaji. But Dallas went on an 8-0 run, aided by a foul call on Kris Dunn on a 3-point attempt. The Jazz challenged the call but lost, burning their last timeout in the process.
So when they got a stop with 6.6 seconds left and down by 3 points, they didn't have one to set up a final play. Dallas smartly fouled Talen Horton-Tucker to not allow a 3-point attempt; he made the first free throw and then intentionally missed the second off the backboard. That gave Dallas the ball and ended Utah's chances.
"I'm proud of how the guys fought, we kind of hung around with them but didn't get the job done," Markkanen said. "So you go through all the little things in your mind."
Or, for some fans, all the lottery chances.
