Jazz's shorthanded, 'gritty' OT win over Trail Blazers shows Hardy's message resonated

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SALT LAKE CITY — The last time the Utah Jazz played the Portland Trail Blazers, Will Hardy used some harsh language to describe his team's effort in an embarrassing loss.

"If you're gonna wear a Utah Jazz jersey, you have to give a (expletive) about the Utah Jazz," he said.

On Saturday, he saw some players who cared.

The severely short-handed Jazz defeated that same Trail Blazers team 118-113 in overtime at the Delta Center. The loss snapped a two-game skid and gave the Jazz their third straight home victory.

Utah was without Lauri Markkanen, Jordan Clarkson, Kelly Olynyk and Kris Dunn. Things were so dire that the Jazz made Brice Sensabaugh, Micah Potter and Johnny Juzang available, even though they had played in a Salt Lake City Stars game hours before.

Yet, the Jazz found a way.

Collin Sexton had 25 points, five assists and four rebounds off the bench; and Keyonte George had a career-high 21 points, six assists and six rebounds to help the Jazz to victory.

But there was a gut check at the end.

Utah led by 11 points with 7:13 remaining but failed to score in the final 2:17 of regulation, which led to a chaotic finish and helped Portland send the game to overtime.

"We had some messy moments, we had some turnovers, we missed a couple of assignments, and the game ended up going into overtime, but the team didn't hang their heads and didn't linger on those couple minutes that didn't go our way," Hardy said.

For Hardy, that showed significant progress. Utah had a knack for letting a couple of bad possessions lead to a few bad minutes; that happened in losses to both Minnesota and Memphis earlier this week. On Saturday, it was different.

"We didn't go off course, which we've done a couple of times this year," Hardy said. "As a coach, that's the growth that impresses me the most from tonight's game — the ability of the team to regroup and dig out a gritty win at home."

Omer Yurtseven had 4 points, two rebounds, and a block in the extra five minutes, and provided a key physical presence for the Jazz as the game tightened up in the overtime period. His offensive putback dunk with 1:13 gave the Jazz a lead they never relinquished.

"Just win by any means," Yurtseven said. "We had a few bad possessions. Everybody just knew that we had to climb, climb and get that win. And I think that was a big growth point for us."

It was appropriate that growth showed up against the very team that made Hardy, to use his words, draw a line in the sand. The Jazz have gone 3-2 since Hardy's demonstrative message, even with dealing with key injuries.

The effort has been stronger and a team that was near the bottom in just about every defensive metric has been a top-three unit over the last five games. That turnaround is remarkable.

"They heard the message for what it was," said Hardy. "They didn't feel like they were being personally attacked and all that. I still love them all. ... I think if we play with the kind of passion that we've shown lately, I do think that we'll be able to build really good winning habits and I think the results will start to go our way."