James Harden alone had twice as much experience – in seasons spent in the Grande Kigue – as… the entire opposing five. That night in Los Angeles, Will Hardy once again decided to bet on his youth. With a logically inconclusive result for Jazz against the old Californian wolves.
The latter, after six minutes of play, had already taken off with the score (26-7) when the Jazz coach decided to remove Collin Sexton, Keyonte George, Taylor Hendricks and Brice Sensabaugh, to leave only Omer Yurtseven in game. The youth, and weakness, of the current squad was such that the Salt Lake City team was crushed severely (131-102).
“ There are many different methods of teaching, of empowering people, and we have gone through a large number of these methods. Sometimes minutes are the only thing that will tell you what needs to be done. And there is nothing malicious about it. I love every single person in this locker room…but we have to start learning and adapting and there are some things youth is no excuse for “, displays the coach after the match.
His philosophy didn't really have any results in this meeting. Five of its players have reached or exceeded the symbolic 20-minute mark, but none of the rookies mobilized among them. His team has also lost 14 of its 15 matches when three rookies are lined up in the starting five.
Darius Bazley's versatility speaks
“ The habits we want to create are generally things that we might think are unimportant or insignificant. 'Am I spacing the game correctly? Am I giving my all to the circle when I'm supposed to? Do I cut when I have to? Do I sprint on defense? Am I communicating coverage? Can I run it? […] 'It has nothing to do with making or missing a shot », judges Will Hardy after his enumeration.
Good habits when the coach knows that a very uncertain offseason awaits Jazz, too good to vegetate at the bottom of the ranking, but not enough to secure a place in the finals. While some players are reaching the end of their contract (Talen Horton-Tucker, Kris Dunn, etc.), some young people could take advantage of the current slump (11 defeats in a row) to show themselves.
Starting with newcomers Kenneth Lofton Jr and Darius Bazley. Arriving in March, but mobilized in the G-League until now, they took their first steps with the Jazz last night. The first contributed 7 points, compared to 12 points and 6 rebounds for the second, the most playing time for his team (33).
“ I thought Baze was great. His energy, his athleticism, his defensive movements, his length really stood out. […] He was kind of a second playmaker for us. I think both of these players performed very well tonight », Judges the coach who, with still five games to play, seems well on his way to testing them again by the end of the season.
| Shots | Rebounds | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Players | MJ | Min | Shots | 3pts | L.F. | Off | Def | Early | Pd | Bp | Int | Ct | Party | Pts |
| Lauri Markkanen | 55 | 33.1 | 48.0 | 39.9 | 89.9 | 2.2 | 5.9 | 8.2 | 2.0 | 1.4 | 0.9 | 0.5 | 1.8 | 23.2 |
| Collin Sexton | 77 | 26.6 | 49.0 | 39.6 | 86.0 | 0.9 | 1.7 | 2.6 | 4.9 | 2.1 | 0.8 | 0.2 | 2.0 | 18.7 |
| Jordan Clarkson | 55 | 30.6 | 41.3 | 29.4 | 88.1 | 0.9 | 2.5 | 3.4 | 5.0 | 2.7 | 0.6 | 0.1 | 1.5 | 17.1 |
| John Collins | 68 | 28.0 | 53.2 | 37.1 | 79.5 | 2.3 | 6.1 | 8.5 | 1.1 | 1.4 | 0.6 | 0.9 | 2.8 | 15.1 |
| Keyonte George | 70 | 26.8 | 38.4 | 32.9 | 85.2 | 0.2 | 2.7 | 2.9 | 4.5 | 2.4 | 0.5 | 0.1 | 1.2 | 12.6 |
| Darius Bazley | 1 | 33.5 | 50.0 | 33.3 | 60.0 | 1.0 | 5.0 | 6.0 | 0.0 | 3.0 | 3.0 | 1.0 | 0.0 | 12.0 |
| Talen Horton Tucker | 48 | 19.1 | 39.3 | 33.1 | 79.6 | 0.4 | 1.9 | 2.3 | 3.5 | 1.2 | 0.9 | 0.3 | 1.8 | 9.7 |
| Simone Fontecchio | 50 | 23.2 | 45.0 | 39.1 | 80.0 | 1.0 | 2.5 | 3.5 | 1.5 | 1.0 | 0.6 | 0.4 | 1.6 | 8.9 |
| Kelly Olynyk | 50 | 20.4 | 56.2 | 42.9 | 84.2 | 1.3 | 3.8 | 5.1 | 4.4 | 1.6 | 0.7 | 0.2 | 2.6 | 8.1 |
| Walker Kessler | 64 | 23.3 | 65.4 | 21.1 | 60.2 | 2.6 | 4.9 | 7.5 | 0.9 | 1.0 | 0.5 | 2.4 | 2.1 | 8.1 |
| Taylor Hendricks | 35 | 20.7 | 44.3 | 36.6 | 80.0 | 1.1 | 3.4 | 4.6 | 0.6 | 0.7 | 0.6 | 0.7 | 2.1 | 7.2 |
| Kenny Lofton, Jr. | 1 | 12.0 | 42.9 | 50.0 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 7.0 |
| Brice Sensabaugh | 27 | 17.1 | 38.9 | 28.6 | 86.7 | 0.4 | 2.6 | 3.0 | 1.7 | 1.5 | 0.4 | 0.1 | 1.3 | 6.7 |
| Johnny Juzang | 15 | 16.1 | 41.9 | 32.7 | 66.7 | 0.5 | 1.5 | 1.9 | 0.9 | 0.4 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 1.2 | 5.5 |
| Kris Dunn | 66 | 18.9 | 47.0 | 36.9 | 68.8 | 0.8 | 2.1 | 2.9 | 3.8 | 1.2 | 1.0 | 0.4 | 2.0 | 5.4 |
| Ochai Agbaji | 51 | 19.7 | 42.6 | 33.1 | 75.0 | 0.7 | 1.8 | 2.5 | 0.9 | 0.7 | 0.5 | 0.6 | 1.3 | 5.4 |
| Omer Yurtseven | 43 | 9.9 | 54.3 | 25.0 | 63.6 | 1.3 | 2.3 | 3.7 | 0.5 | 0.7 | 0.1 | 0.4 | 1.1 | 3.9 |
| Luka Samanic | 38 | 7.2 | 37.3 | 25.0 | 77.8 | 0.3 | 1.7 | 2.0 | 0.3 | 0.4 | 0.1 | 0.2 | 0.7 | 3.0 |
| Mike Potter | 13 | 10.4 | 52.2 | 50.0 | 100.0 | 0.4 | 1.8 | 2.2 | 0.2 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.5 | 2.8 |
| Kira Lewis, Jr. | 10 | 7.5 | 41.7 | 20.0 | 83.3 | 0.4 | 0.4 | 0.8 | 1.4 | 0.5 | 0.2 | 0.1 | 0.3 | 2.7 |
| Jason Preston | 5 | 9.5 | 41.7 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.8 | 1.4 | 2.2 | 2.6 | 0.4 | 0.4 | 0.0 | 0.4 | 2.0 |
