Utah Jazz forward John Collins (20) reacts after their 140-137 loss in the NBA basketball against the Golden State Warriors at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City on Thursday, Feb. 15, 2024.
Megan Nielsen, Deseret News
The Utah Jazz’s 140-137 loss to the Golden State Warriors on Thursday night is the moral victory of the season.
Despite the fact that Collin Sexton missed a wide open look at the buzzer that could have sent the game into overtime, and that moments earlier John Collins threw an errant pass when the Jazz trailed by just two points, and that they ultimately lost this game, there are more positives than negatives for the Jazz in this one.
This Jazz team had lost three straight going into Thursday night — all following the trade deadline and all blowouts. The vibes in the locker room were bad, the players seemed frustrated with the trade deadline moves made by the front office and the losses were not helping anything.
On Thursday, they actually played pretty good defense on Stephen Curry, but failed to provide the right type of physicality needed to stop any of the Warriors other scoring threats. They were trailing by as many as 19 points after giving up 84 to the Warriors in the first half alone.
But a fourth quarter rally, a career night from rookie Keyonte George and the belief that they have what it takes to match up against some of the best players in the game is exactly what this team needed.
Obviously a win would have been better. But if there was any loss to go into the All-Star break on, this is the kind that makes it feel a little bit better.
Keyonte’s big night
You can’t deny the kid has timing.
The night before the All-Star Rising Stars tournament, George turned in a career-best 35 points, hitting nine 3-pointers while also dishing out six assists and grabbing three steals.
“Tonight was probably his sort of coming out party,” Jazz head coach Will Hardy said. “I think we saw tonight what I’ve been seeing, and we’ve been seeing behind closed doors in terms of his ability to get those shots off in a variety of ways.”
Hardy has been trying to get George to be more aggressive and take more shots and has given him a neon green light, and it is great to see George take the reins. The Jazz need him to be this player.
John Collins’ turnover
With nine seconds left in the game, Lauri Markkanen missed a 3-point shot and Collins came down with an incredible offensive rebound. Surrounded by three Warriors players, probably fouled by Draymond Green while trying to get loose, he eventually passed to the right corner, intending the ball to get to George.
But, Collins’ pass went way too high and sailed into the stands. At that point the Jazz were trailing by just two points and the turnover was really just the worst timing.
It was a chaotic moment. Why didn’t Hardy call a timeout?
Well, prior to that specific moment, Hardy wasn’t keen on using a timeout because he didn’t want Golden State to be able to swap out players for their better defenders. Then, when Collins got the rebound, he thought he was going to pass out to Sexton. One second later it was too late.
“That’s not the way that it worked out,” Hardy said. “So, I’ll get to spend the next five days thinking about if there was a half second there that I could have called timeout on the offensive rebound. But, you know, in terms of the initial part of the situation I’m not going to call time out there, especially if that’s the lineup that they have on the floor.”
And Collins felt absolutely awful.
Which brings me to the final thought of the night.
Collin Sexton is the ultimate teammate
Immediately after the ball left Collins’ hands he covered his face and was devastated.
“I just got the rebound, there was a lot of swiping hands, was crowded, didn’t know what decisions to make offensively, so I tried to pass the ball and ended up throwing a fireball into the crowd,” Collins said afterward, shaking his head in disappointment. “Stuff happens.”
The Warriors took the ball out of bounds and the Jazz immediately fouled to send Stephen Curry to the free throw line. Once the ball was dead and they were heading over for free throws, Collins dropped to the floor in a squat, covering his face with his hands.
He was clearly feeling the weight of the game on his shoulders and once Sexton saw him, he rushed over.
Sexton lifted Collins up, patted him on the chest and continuously told him that it was ok, that there was more time on the clock, that the Jazz still had a chance, that they needed Collins to have his head in the game.
He was clapping and pounding Collins on the chest and was unrelenting in hyping up his downtrodden teammate.
“I almost sort of expected it,” Collins said of Sexton. “That’s just kind of the nature of Collin and the kind of teammate he is, trying to just pick me up…That’s my brother. I appreciate him, always.”
A teammate that can immediately see the need to help out someone and to keep them in the moment while also pumping them up in their worst moment is invaluable. That is the kind of guy you absolutely want on the roster.
May we all find someone that can be a Collin Sexton in our lives.