Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
- Jordan Clarkson narrowly avoided a scoreless game in Utah's loss to Sacramento.
- Clarkson struggled with shooting, going 1-for-14, while teammate Walker Kessler excelled.
- Coach Hardy noted the team's odd performance, despite decent assists and 3-point shooting.
SALT LAKE CITY — Jordan Clarkson was close Wednesday to some unwelcome history.
Since arriving in Utah in December 2019, Clarkson has scored in every Jazz game he has played. That almost changed on Wednesday during Utah 118-101 loss to the Sacramento Kings.
Clarkson didn't get on the board until just over a minute left in the game.
His driving layup ended a streak of 13 straight misses to start the game. And Clarkson knew he was in for an odd night on his first shot of the game when he popped out to the 3-point line and no defender followed him.
"That was the first time I shot an open shot in like two weeks," he said. "I was like that was almost too easy."
Clarkson has made a career out of making tough shots — and at this point, he kind of prefers having a hand in his face. That early miss set the stage for a strange night for him and, frankly, his team.
Soon, the mind games started kicking in for the Jazz veteran; and before he knew it, he was 0-for-6 … then 0-for-10 … and eventually 0-for-13.
"My teammates were like, 'Keep shooting, keep shooting,'" Clarkson said. "I was like, 'bruh …'"
Sometimes the only thing you can do is shrug and laugh off that kind of night.
"You guys are going to ask about Jordan going 1-for-14," Jazz coach Will Hardy said. "I don't know — people get struck by lightning, too. I've never seen that in my life. I don't think we'll ever see it again."
Clarkson has been held scoreless just four times in his NBA career, three of which came early in his rookie season when he was only playing a handful of minutes per night. The last time he didn't score was on Nov. 22, 2019 — a month before he got to Utah.
Sure, he's had plenty of rough outings since then, just rarely as bad as Wednesday's.
"That was wild," said Clarkson, shrugging. "Oh well."
The problem for the Jazz was Clarkson wasn't the only one with a strange night.
"There are a couple games usually every season that are just kind of weird," Hardy said. "You can't quite put your finger on it."
Utah's offense didn't feel particularly fluid, yet it still finished with 32 assists. The Jazz shot decent enough from 3-point range (16-for-44), though a 1-for-9 from corner 3s in the first half made everything feel worse.
In the end, it was tough to figure out exactly what had gone wrong — but something was off.
"I can't sit here and say we didn't pass, I didn't think it was one of those nights," Hardy said. "We didn't shoot the ball well from the free-throw line. That's been a little bit of a trend lately that we don't love, but on the whole for the season that hasn't been an issue. So is that a short-term thing? I hope so."
Hardy did point out, though, that the attention to detail guarding handoffs and off-ball screens could have been better, which allowed Keegan Murray to hang 26 points on the Jazz. Outside of that, though, it just felt like an odd night.
"The team knows that I would tell them if I thought their effort was poor or I thought that they were not moving the ball and not passing and those types of things," Hardy said. "And I just didn't think it was that kind of night."
It certainly wasn't for Walker Kessler.
Kessler, who has been fighting an illness, scored a season-high 25 points on 10-of-10 shooting and added 14 rebounds and five assists.
"I was just trying not to spit up blood on my jersey," Kessler said, only half-joking.
As for the performance, though, he mostly shrugged it off.
"I mean, everyone cares about their individual performance to some extent, but for me, I just want to win," he said. "And I think I play my best when I'm just trying to win and impact the game in any way I can. And so didn't get it done tonight."
