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SALT LAKE CITY — John Collins was surrounded by three Golden State Warriors players when he came down with an offensive rebound with 7.0 seconds left in regulation.
The Warriors swarmed around him, slapping at and trying to steal the ball as they desperately tried to hold onto their 1-point lead.
With the seconds winding down, Collins looked to the top of the key where Collin Sexton stood wide open. Steph Curry, though, quickly jumped in front of the Jazz forward to block the passing lane.
Collins then looked to his left and saw Keyonte George open on the wing. He threw an over-the-head pass in the direction of George, but the pass just flew into about the fifth row.
"Thew a fireball into the crowd," Collins said. "Stuff happens."
That was the key part of the chaotic finish that saw the Warriors hold on for a 140-137 win over the Jazz on Thursday at the Delta Center in both teams' final game heading into the All-Star break.
After rebounding a Klay Thompson miss with 24 seconds left, the Jazz, who had trailed by 18 points to begin the fourth quarter, suddenly had a chance to win the game. Instead of using one of his final two timeouts, Will Hardy decided to let his team play against Golden State's unset defense.
George got the switch on Thompson and drove into the paint. That drew a Golden State crowd, and he kicked a pass out to Lauri Markkanen in the corner for a 3-pointer. The Finnish forward had scored 15 points already in the fourth quarter, but his 3-point attempt went just long. Collins, though, grabbed the rebound.
Should Hardy have called a timeout then and there? That's something he'll have nearly a week to ponder as the Jazz go into the break on a four-game skid.
"I thought the ball was going out to Collin at the top of the key," Hardy said. "And that's not the way that it worked out, so I get to spend the next five days thinking about if there was a half second there that I could have called timeout on the offensive rebound. But in terms of the initial part of the situation, I'm not going to call timeout there, especially if that's the lineup that they have on the floor."
After Golden State made two free throws to go up by 3, the Jazz did have one last chance at the tie — and it was a good one. Sexton got the inbound in the corner, side-stepped a defender and got off a wide-open look. It hit the back of the iron as the buzzer sounded.
"A tough finish, but I thought, you know, the fight and the spirit of the team was there," Hardy said.
A loss is a loss, as Markkanen said, but there are some positives to take away from Thursday's defeat, especially after the last three games ended in blowouts.
George was superb, setting a career-high with 33 points and tying an NBA rookie record with nine 3-pointers. After allowing a franchise-record 84 points in the first half, the Jazz held the Warriors to just 20 in the fourth quarter. And after going 1-of-12 through three quarters, Marrkanen came alive in the final period, scoring 15 points on 5-of-10 shooting.
"It's always tough to lose a close one, but, yeah, I mean not a blowout, so it's more fun to play than those games," Markkanen said.
So there's at least a bit of a morale victory there. And at least that's something the Jazz can take with them into the break after going 0-4 since the trade deadline.
"We got a lot of work to do as a team and individually, so looking forward to getting back to work but a loss is always a loss so it sucks," Hardy said.
