3 challenges go against Utah in final minute of loss to 76ers, but it shows progress

SALT LAKE CITY — Jordan Clarkson's foot was in the wrong spot at the wrong time.

Philadelphia forward Paul George had frantically grabbed an offensive rebound with the shot clock winding down and turned to shoot a desperation fadeaway. In the process, he clipped Clarkson and that sent him tumbling down.

Foul.

Jazz coach Will Hardy quickly challenged the play, but after review, the call stood. That was one of three reviews in the closing minute that went Philadelphia's way as the 76ers escaped Utah with a 114-111 victory Saturday at the Delta Center.

Was that deflating?

"Only now that you bring it up," Hardy quipped when asked. "The challenge is there for the reasons that are obvious. They were right on both theirs and we weren't on ours. But, yeah, I wasn't sad till now."

(Sorry about that, Will.)

In fact, he left the game feeling quite good about his team's progress. Over the last 10 games, the Jazz have had a top-10 offense in the NBA and are now on a five-game run where the team has played clutch minutes (albeit, Utah is 2-3 in that stretch).

Saturday was yet another example of an improving team. The Jazz had 27 assists, had three players reach 20 or more points, and were within one possession for the entire final five minutes, save for four seconds.

All that against a team that has Joel Embiid (32 points), Tyrese Maxey (32 points and six assists) and Paul George (13 points) playing together. Those three combined for 21 points in the fourth quarter.

"I don't think anybody should walk away from this game discouraged at all," Hardy said. "Losing hurts. Losing is not fun. But there's a lot of really good stuff happening on our team right now; the cohesion of the group on both sides of the ball has grown a lot in the last couple of weeks."

One issue, though, is masking some of that progress, and that's turnovers. The Jazz had 22 giveaways — including 15 live-ball turnovers — leading to 22 points.

"You can go look at the list — it's everybody," Hardy said. "We're not doing a good enough job of seeing that shift defender. We're dribbling into a secondary defender too many times. We also just have some moments of poor ball security. The team knows that and we'll face that reality, and we'll continue to work at it."

Because, otherwise, the Jazz have been playing some good basketball. They lost at the buzzer on Thursday, lost in the final seconds on Saturday and took Cleveland down to the final minutes earlier in the week.

Moral victory? Sure. Regardless, it's a night-and-day difference from what the Jazz were like at the beginning of the season.

"We've stuck together, even though it hasn't been the best year," said Lauri Markkanen, who led the Jazz with 23 points and hit a late, deep 3-pointer to keep some hope alive. "We didn't close out tonight, or in Portland, or even the Cavs game, but we were right there."

If anything, that's been the hallmark of Hardy's Jazz teams. The Utah front office has yet to give him a team that can truly compete. Yet, in his first two seasons, his teams exceeded expectations — even to the chagrin of some Jazz fans (and maybe some management, too) — and things are starting to trend in that direction again.

And it's coming via veterans and youngsters.

In the last five games, Markkanen has scored over 20 points each time and Collin Sexton is averaging 22.2 points and 7.2 assists. On Saturday, Brice Sensabaugh showed more patience reading the floor, leading to 20 points and two assists; and rookie forward Cody Williams had some bright spots attacking the rim.

"They have a really talented team with some incredibly high-level players that made some big-time plays," Hardy said. "But this is a night where I walk out feeling good about the progress of our group."

The fact that challenges were even needed during the final minute is evidence enough of that.

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