Utah Jazz head coach Will Hardy made headlines for all the wrong reasons after his team’s 105-104 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers on Sunday at Delta Center. Hardy called a timeout just as Jazz guard Collin Sexton was in the process of hitting a potential game-winner and he spoke about that sequence after the game.
“Obviously, the timeout, we like to let people go in that situation,” Hardy said. “When Collin did a retreat dribble backwards, started calling timeout. It’s obviously loud. The hope would have been to have a few more seconds than 2.1. But, yeah, it’s tough.”
“My instinct is the second we start going backwards, you’re calling timeout,” Hardy stated. “… It’s hard because you don’t know exactly how it would’ve ended up had they not blown the whistle and everybody kept playing. Maybe Collin would have finished it. I told Bull in the locker room I robbed him of a moment at the end of the game. But you go into those situations, we practice these situations, you have cues and things that you’re looking for. It didn’t go our way.”
Hardy was then asked about Sexton’s reaction to that sequence in the locker room.
“Collin was very gracious to me in the locker room,” Hardy stated. “On the court, he was a little more frustrated but in the moment of emotion, which I get… I did what I did and we all have responsibilities at the end.”
(starts at 0:17 mark):
In case you missed it, you can check out the viral sequence in question below.
Jazz coach Will Hardy wipes away Collin Sexton's game-winner with a timeout.
Lakers win.pic.twitter.com/XSBpqh3yh7
— Underdog NBA (@UnderdogNBA) December 2, 2024
It does look like Hardy wanted to call a timeout a second or two earlier, but none of the officials were paying attention to him. By the time the 36-year-old walked toward them from the Jazz bench and got their attention, Sexton was driving to the rim. It was just horrible timing.
Sexton was then blocked by multiple Lakers players on the final play of the game and that meant the Jazz dropped to 4-16 on the season. They have now lost their last four games and have the third-worst record in the NBA.
The Jazz are very much tanking this season and a semi-veteran like Sexton, who had 15 points, three rebounds, four assists, one steal, and one block against the Lakers, might not be there much longer. According to NBA insider Marc Stein, Sexton, John Collins, and Jordan Clarkson are prime candidates to be shipped out of Utah before the deadline. Some contending teams certainly could do with having them on board.
The Jazz will be facing one next, as they take on the Oklahoma City Thunder at Paycom Center on Tuesday at 8 PM ET. It is an NBA Cup game too but the Jazz have already been eliminated from contention for the knockouts after losing their first three games.
Anthony Davis Thinks He’d Have Blocked Collin Sexton’s Shot If The Referee Hadn’t Blown His Whistle
While the Jazz were left wondering what might have been, the Lakers were pretty confident that things were under control. When Anthony Davis was asked about that play during his postgame press conference, he stated he probably would have blocked the shot had the whistle not been blown.
“Collin got down here, and I was actually going for the block, but I heard the whistle, so I stopped,” Davis said. “… I don’t know if he would’ve made it, I probably would’ve blocked it.”
Davis made no attempt to contest Sexton’s shot once he heard the whistle. We’ll never know for sure if he’d have been able to block that shot if the timeout hadn’t been called, but with how good of a defender he is, I’d say there was a good chance he’d have forced a miss there.
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