Jazz show that teams don't need a 'closer' to win close games

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SALT LAKE CITY — Will Hardy pointed it out immediately. As he sat down for his postgame press conference after yet another thrilling victory for the rookie head coach, he jumped into how his team assisted on all of their final 23 points.

That was different.

Usually near the end of a close game, teams give the ball to their best player to either run a high screen-and-roll or to take their chances in isolation. The game's result is often decided on whether that player can make a play or two down the stretch.

For years, the Jazz let Donovan Mitchell's actions late in a game decide the team's fate. When he made some shots, the Jazz won; when he didn't, they lost. It was all pretty simple, and the Jazz were far from alone. The thinking is that those types of players will be able to at least generate a decent look, no matter what.

But what if a team doesn't have one of those guys on the roster?

"When I look at our roster, I think we have some good players who can do a variety of things; but also when I look at our roster, I don't see a ton of guys that I think are great isolation players," Hardy said.

So instead of relying on Jordan Clarkson, Collin Sexton, Lauri Markkanen or anyone else to win a game by himself, Hardy has decided to take a different approach: Why not just play team basketball until the final buzzer?

It's surprising how novel of a concept that is; yet, it's worked wonderfully so far for the Jazz.

Utah has played the most clutch minutes of any team this season — defined as the score within 5 points in the final five minutes of a game — and they've been pretty efficient in those games. The Jazz have assisted on 20 of their 26 made field goals during those minutes and are now 4-1 in games that have been decided late.

On Saturday, the Jazz got assists from Clarkson, Sexton, Markkanen, and Kelly Olynyk in the closing minutes. Instead of hoping a step back 3-pointer will fall, they are cutting, driving, setting multiple screens, and finding open guys — any guys.

"It's harder to guard," Olynyk said. "You have to guard multiple actions, multiple people, different scenarios, navigate a lot of different things — it's tough. If you go to one single screen-and-roll action, everybody can kind of load up, get in their spots and, you know, talk it out. Then it's iso after that."

The Jazz want to give teams different looks. It's why they had both Sexton and Clarkson take turns initiating sets down the stretch, and why they changed up where Markkanen and Olynyk were setting up on the court. They want each set to have multiple actions and multiple options, with a belief that eventually someone will be open.

That's what led to the game-changing 3-pointers from Olynyk and Malik Beasley late against the Grizzlies on Saturday.

"I was trying to change up our look each time down the floor and put some different people in to try to cause some confusion," Hardy said. "Memphis is a really good team that has played a lot of big games together, and I felt like we didn't want to show them the same thing."

Now, will this continue to work? It's still very early in the season, and teams will get a longer scouting report on Utah and its late-game sets. But so far the Jazz have shown that teams can win close games without a "closer" on the team.

"Everybody can make plays, knock down shots," said Clarkson, who had four assists in the fourth quarter. "We do a good job of spacing the floor, making plays for each other, so when looks come, everybody's in rhythm and everybody trusts each other."