'We didn't have that': Jazz play low-energy game in home loss to Hawks

SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Jazz haven't won three games in a row since early November. And that streak stayed alive on Friday.

Atlanta's De'Andre Hunter hit a corner 3-pointer (which, honestly, considering the time remaining, he probably shouldn't have taken) with 21.1 seconds left that served as the dagger to the Hawks' 115-108 win over Utah on Friday at Vivint Arena.

It was the Hawks' final answer to a Jazz run that nearly salvaged a mistake-filled, low-energy night. Utah was down by 10 points after the first quarter, and trailed by as many as 22 points in the loss.

Jordan Clarkson capped off a 10-0 run in the fourth quarter by making back-to-back 3-pointers to cut Atlanta's lead to five with 3:17 remaining in the game, which was enough time for Utah to finish off the comeback; however, it was the closest the Jazz would get.

Utah went 2-of-7 to finish the game, which continued a game-long trend of failing to make shots — no matter how open they were. It was a night where the Jazz shot 45% from the field and 29% from the 3-point line.

"I thought we did come out flat," said Mike Conley, who had 20 points and eight assists. "Even in the third quarter, we started off a little bit flat, and we wanted to come up with energy. For whatever reason, we didn't have that. There's nights like that."

Was it an All-Star celebration hangover after the team surprised Lauri Markkanen at the practice facility on Thursday night? Maybe. More likely, though, it was just one of them nights.

The Jazz fell back by double-digits quickly, amid a sea of missed shots and bad transition defense. In the season half, the Hawks started on a 6-0 run out of the gate to set the tone for the final two quarters of the game. It led to a hole that the Jazz couldn't climb out of, no matter how frantically they tried at the end of the game.

Markkanen had 25 points on 8-for-19 shooting and added 10 rebounds, but he said he forced some shots after seeing so many go in and out.

Bad shooting nights are going to happen — heck, Atlanta didn't have a great night, either, and shot 27% from 3-point range. The biggest problem for coach Will Hardy was how that affected everything else in the game.

"We were a little bit down or distracted by our lack of shot making, and because of that we didn't execute on the defensive end as well as we would have liked to," Hardy said.

Especially in transition. The Jazz were slow footed to get back, even when their shots actually fell. Hardy said he sensed his team was so relieved when a shot went in that they struggled to actually get back on defense. That made for a difficult night for the home team.

Hardy tried to find things that worked, but to no avail. Rookie center Walker Kessler played just 18 minutes and didn't close the game after struggling mightily for much of the night (he had 2 points and five rebounds); Malik Beasley went 1-for-8 from 3-point range; and Hardy turned to Nickeil Alexander-Walker in the fourth quarter to try and generate some energy.

"Sometimes you have to overcome that and generate it from different guys," Conley said.

Conley credited Collin Sexton, who had 8 points in the first quarter, and Ochai Agbaji, who made a 3-pointer near the end, as guys who helped the Jazz, at least, make things interesting. In the end, the Jazz found a bit of a late spark — mostly due to Clarkson, who finished with 24 points — but it proved to be too little, too late.

"Obviously, a tough game," Hardy said. "We struggled to make shots for the entire night, and that made it hard for us to gather any sort of momentum."

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