Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
- Lauri Markkanen's missed free throw and lane violation contributed to Jazz's 112-111 loss.
- Coach Will Hardy's decision to intentionally miss the free throw was questioned postgame.
- Despite the loss, Jazz players see value in learning from tight-game experiences.
SALT LAKE CITY — With 17.2 seconds left in the game, Lauri Markkanen looked toward the Jazz bench for instruction.
He had just missed the first of his two free throws, squandering a chance to tie a 2-point game at the line, and needed to know if he should try and miss the second one intentionally.
"I thought with the lineup we had in the game and who they had in the game at the time, we had a chance to get it," Jazz coach Will Hardy said.
They didn't.
Markkanen went a hair early and was called for a lane violation. And that moment loomed large in Indiana's 112-111 victory over Utah Monday at the Delta Center — a single point (or free throw) away from overtime.
"We have general things that we look at," Hardy said about the decision. "I felt like the group we had out there, we had a good chance to dig out that ball. It didn't work out."
It was an interesting choice, to be sure. If Markkanen makes the free throw and the Jazz play the foul game, the worst-case scenario is they'd be down 3 points with over 10 seconds remaining. Not a terrible position.
Not getting the rebound? Well, that made the Jazz need some free-throw luck or a couple of lucky bounces, and those didn't happen.
So smart decision?
"You always think about that stuff after the game," Markkanen said. "I probably should have made it. Or it could go either way, we get the offensive rebound and win the game."
If the Jazz had gotten the rebound after the missed free throw, they would have had a 19.7% chance of winning, according to the NBA win calculator on inpredictable.com. If Markkanen had simply made it, that would have only been a hair lower at 17.9%. But missing it and not getting a rebound? The win percentage plummets to 7.8%.
So, essentially, the Jazz were hoping to hit on a low-percentage play (Markkanen said that he — shocker — doesn't practice missing too much) to improve chances only by a small amount.
So was it a fun experiment? A stealth tanking move? Or just a hunch by Hardy?
"There also are moments where you just kind of go with your gut a little bit," he admitted.
It didn't work out on Monday.
In tight games, it's easy to fixate on singular plays or decisions like that.
But that kind of pressure is critical to the growth of a young team. Blowouts — be they wins or losses — don't have the same feel and they don't come with the same lessons.
"There's a bunch of plays you can point out," Hardy said. "There are jump balls we don't get, there's a little bit too much flopping going on at the end of the game, like we can't expect to get a whistle."
Crunch time is often the best teacher, but Hardy would have preferred things never got to the lesson portion on Monday.
Utah led by 12 points with six minutes remaining, and then the Pacers went on a 14-1 run (you can go ahead and insert a tank joke here) to steal the game late. In those critical moments, the Jazz got pushed out of their sets, which led to bad shots or turnovers.
"We've got to play through those things," Hardy said. "We've got to play in straight lines, we've got to set up, we've got to help our teammates create an advantage. And these are great lessons for our team to learn, because, again, I think there's a lot of good stuff happening in our locker room."
And the team thinks Monday's game, loss and all, will only help lead to more good stuff in the future.
"Being in those moments, the physicality that's happening in those moments, I mean it's all good to take it on the chin," said Keyonte George, who finished with 16 points and 11 assists. "We learn, we watch the film and we can only get better. That's the best thing about this."
