Did a late timeout foil Jazz's chance to win against Lakers?

SALT LAKE CITY — Collin Sexton thought he had won the game.

The Jazz guard had scooped it high off the glass for a layup and then went to celebrate. Except, the supposed game-winner didn't count.

Will Hardy, sensing danger on the final possession, called a timeout.

Sexton wasn't so lucky on his second chance. The Jazz inbounded to Sexton, who fumbled the ball and failed to get up a look as Utah fell 105-104 to the Los Angeles Lakers Sunday at the Delta Center.

Heartbreak.

"We like to let people go in that situation," Hardy said. "When Collin did a retreat dribble backward, I 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."

To be clear, it wasn't a certainty that Hardy's timeout cost the team a win. The whistle clearly blew as Sexton started his drive, and that caused Anthony Davis, who was lurking in the paint, to allow the layup to happen.

Davis may have collected a game-winning block if Hardy hadn't called timeout. Or maybe Sexton still pulls the layup off.

"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," Hardy said. "I told (Sexton) in the locker room, I robbed him of a moment at the end of the game."

Added Sexton: "It could have went either way. At the end of day, coach felt like I was stuck a little bit and called it. It's just one of those if it goes in, good; but if it doesn't, then I should have called the timeout. So I don't blame them at all for calling it."

Hardy first signaled for a timeout — mostly by jumping and yelling to get the officials' attention — with around four seconds remaining. The timeout wasn't granted until the clock had ticked to 2.1. That didn't leave the Jazz a lot of options for a game-winning play.

The plan was to get Lauri Markkanen at the elbow, but Brice Sensabaugh hesitated and the passing window closed. That left Sensabaugh to inbound the ball to Sexton, who in a hurry lost the ball for a brief moment and was unable to get a shot off.

"That's something we've got to work on," Hardy said. "Fight for our space, deliver the ball. Brice hasn't been in that situation — inbounding at the end of a game. It's a good experience for him. It's a good experience for our team."

The disappointing ending capped off one of Utah's strongest efforts of the season — especially in clutch time.

The Jazz got big buckets from Sexton, Keyonte George, Walker Kessler and Markkanen as the team came back from down 9 points with 5:33 remaining to nearly steal the win.

"I think the guys fought hard enough to win," Hardy said. "We've got to take the same competitiveness and energy into this road trip, and we will break through. I think that the team is getting better."

Davis had 33 points and 11 rebounds to lead the Lakers, and LeBron James added 27 points and 14 assists.

Markkanen led Utah with 22 points and seven rebounds, and John Collins added 21 points and nine rebounds. Kessler had 13 points and 11 rebounds, and it was his putback layup with 31 seconds remaining that cut the Lakers' lead down to 1.

Sexton had 8 of his 15 points in the fourth quarter to lead the near comeback.

And may have added another bucket, too.

"I did what I did," Hardy said of the timeout. "We all have responsibilities at the end, but Collin's an amazing kid and a great teammate. He's super coachable. He and I notoriously butt heads a lot, but there's a lot of love between us. I hope we get another situation like that, and I'll just start walking to the bench and sit down when he goes full court."

When told of that comment, Sexton responded: "Hey, if that's the case, I'm gonna let y'all know it's going up. I'm shooting it."

Related topics