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NEW ORLEANS — Will Hardy stormed onto the court, begging for a technical. He got one — and then kept on talking — almost as if he was debating just to end his night right then and there.
That sequence was pretty much the most fight the Jazz showed Tuesday in New Orleans.
It was an easy night in the Big Easy for the New Orleans Pelicans as they beat the Jazz 153-124. It was the most points the Jazz have given up in a game this season, and the most the Pelicans have ever scored in a game.
So, yeah, not great.
CJ McCollum had 33 points and Herb Jones added 22 as New Orleans ran away from Utah. New Orleans shot 23-of-46 from 3-point range and 57% overall from the field.
It was the third straight loss for a team that had previously been on one of the best runs in the entire league. Was the 15-4 19-game stretch an aberration or just a small blip?
To Hardy, the solution is easy.
"The reality of tonight's game and the reality of the last three games — or at least parts of the first quarters of the last two games and tonight's game — we're just not playing hard enough," Hardy said.
It was a call back (though, admittedly less aggressively) to some of his comments that preluded Utah's December turnaround.
But there are slightly different circumstances this time around.
"It's late January in the NBA, and the initial part of the season has past and everybody's a little bit banged up," Hardy said. "Rumors start to swirl in the media about what's going to happen with the team and the trade deadline and everyone's names are being thrown around, like, your mind can drift this time of year. I'm always going to try to be very aware of the fact that these guys are human beings and those things are natural, but it's our job to fight our natural instinct."
He said the first part about overcoming nights like Tuesday's games is admitting that there will be nights where shots don't fall, where the minds drift, and, that the legs aren't there — and then finding a way to overcome those.
"Guys gotta find whatever fuels them and find the extra 10%," said Lauri Markkanen, who was held to just 11 points. "So that's what it is. Just leave it all out there. That shouldn't be a hard thing to do for us."
And it might be a necessity, too.
The Jazz are not a team that can waltz through a game and expect to win at the end. The three-game skid has proved that more than anything. In all three games, Utah was buried at the beginning before trying to mount a comeback. They got close in the first two, but failed hard Tuesday. Utah was able to cut the Pelicans' 18-point halftime advantage to 8 midway through the third quarter only for New Orleans to respond with an 18-4 run that essentially ended the game.
If the Jazz come out with a special fire, they have proven to be a good team. If not … well, things can go south quickly.
"We've got to find a way to crank up the gas. Sometimes you've got to kind of create an alter ego — just figure out a way to become a crazy person with your hair on fire for two and a half hours," Hardy said. "And then you can go back to being tired."
The good news for Jazz fans is Hardy believes his team can do just that. That's how they played for a month, and he's sure they can get back to that same team.
"We will find that again," he said. "This happens. Like what just happened in that game is not a shock to anyone who's been around the NBA. Sometimes these games come out of nowhere, they're usually on the road, and they don't feel good. But knowing our team's approach, being in that locker room, seeing the way that they interact with each other the way they interact with our staff. I have no concerns about the ability to pivot back to playing great basketball."
