The lesson the Jazz can take from the final 2 minutes in loss to Magic

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ORLANDO — Will Hardy glanced over to his bench, hoping for good news.

With 1:46 left in the game, the ball was lost out of bounds and was ruled off Utah. Hardy looked down to his assistants to see if there was a chance that call was wrong. In hindsight, he may have wanted to challenge it regardless.

That, at least, may have cooled off Jalen Suggs.

Suggs drilled a 3-pointer out of the inbounds; and on the next possession, he made another. That made it three triples in a row for the former Gonzaga Bulldog — and the latter two started a 10-0 run as the Magic pulled away late for a 115-107 win over the Utah Jazz Thursday at KIA Center.

Paolo Banchero led the way for Orlando with 29 points on 10-of-16 shooting, and Suggs scored all 15 of his points in the second half, including 10 in the fourth quarter.

The Jazz trailed by as many as 13 in the first half, but used an 11-0 run to close the second quarter to get within 2 at the break.

From there, it was a back-and-forth game; except for the final two minutes.

"I was really pleased with the effort of the team," Hardy said. "I thought the second half we adjusted defensively as a group and did a much better job protecting the paint. They only had 22 paint points in the second half, and we put ourselves in a position to win the game."

The ending showed an area for growth for a young Jazz team that is committed to playing three rookies in rotation minutes.

After Suggs hit the 3-point on the out-of-bounds play, Lauri Markkanen had a chance to answer on the other end. He got a good look from deep that just didn't go. Still, the Jazz were down by only 4 points with a little over a minute remaining — plenty of time to win the game.

Some overzealous defense cost them, though.

"Banchero gets the ball in the post and we're disorganized," Hardy said.

Rookie guard Keyonte George tried to make a play and went and doubled Banchero, but that left Suggs, the player who had caught fire, alone in the corner. He made the Jazz pay dearly.

"I understand Keyonte is trying to make a play, and that's just kind of where he was on the floor. But I think in that moment as a team, we've got to do a better job of recognizing that being down 4 with a minute is a very winnable game," Hardy said. "We just need to stay focused in that moment and execute what we want to do."

Being down 7, though, is a whole different story — especially since the Jazz had gone cold.

Collin Sexton, Keyonte George and John Collins all had 19 points, and Markkanen chipped in 18 points. With 4:56 left, Markkanen slipped inside for a dunk that tied things up at 99-99; that ended up being the Jazz's final field goal of the night.

"It's just missing shots," said Taylor Hendricks, who had 10 points and seven rebounds in his return to Florida. "I mean, we're getting stops, playing great D, and then, you know, things fell apart a little bit."

Especially on one pivotal possession.

"I think that one possession for me is just a kind of a display of like we're close in terms of being at a place where we're thinking as a group," Hardy said. "But, overall, I thought the team played really hard. We just didn't finish."