Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
- The Utah Jazz lost 97-92 to the Miami Heat in a close game.
- Despite recent losses, the Jazz have improved their net rating since December 19.
- Coach Will Hardy credits improved team cohesion and communication for the competitive play.
SALT LAKE CITY — Something funny has happened over the last few weeks: The Utah Jazz have become a competitive basketball team.
Since Dec. 19, the Jazz have the 13th-best net rating in the NBA, the equivalent of a play-in team.
Now, don't expect the Jazz to suddenly spring up the standings. The improved play hasn't led to a huge surplus of wins — Utah is 4-7 in that span after falling 97-92 to the Miami Heat Thursday at the Delta Center — but it is providing some valuable experience.
"We're fighting to the very end," Walker Kessler said. "Obviously, got some things we've gotta straighten out and stuff, but we're competing and it's fun. It's fun to be in this kind of game. Obviously, not fun to lose, but we're in those games, so it's a lot of fun."
Against Miami, the Jazz were tied with 3:31 remaining, and it was a one-possession game with 11 seconds to go.
That's been the norm as of late. Utah lost on a buzzer-beater on Tuesday, and recently suffered losses to Portland, Cleveland and Philadelphia in the final moments of those games, too.
It's a far cry from the team that was near the bottom of the league in just about every metric in the first two months of the season.
So what's been different?
"We're starting to feel some of the cohesion of the group," Jazz coach Will Hardy said.
He said the team's communication has improved when it comes to defending actions and playing a two-man game. One example of that was the lineup of Patty Mills, Johnny Juzang, Cody Williams, Drew Eubanks and Micah Potter, who started the fourth quarter for the Jazz.
That group went on an 8-0 run to give the Jazz a 3-point lead with just under eight mintues remaining. Surprising? Not to Hardy.
"That group plays together so much in practice, but we haven't gotten to see it much in the games," he said. "But I think, we as a team, the staff and the players, we know that they've played a bunch together."
That helped the Jazz stay close to the Heat despite struggling mightily on the offensive end. The Jazz had just two players reach double figures (Lauri Markkanen and Collin Sexton, who both had 23 points) and shot under 40% from the field.
The Heat, though, were just as bad; they just made the big shots down the stretch.
"I thought our defense was great tonight," Hardy said. "I thought we made Miami work really, really hard for every basket they got."
Part of that effort is due to a team bonding off the court. There were plenty of new faces to start the season — players needed to learn the system, their roles and where they fit in the locker room.
"The guys know each other way better than at the beginning of the year," Hardy said. "It takes a second for those things to settle. … I feel like the group has become more cohesive as the season's gone along, and this is about the time when you start to feel that."
That's showing on the court, too.
With games coming down to the final few possessions, the team is starting to dissect little moments in the losses more. The spacing on one possession, or a bad rotation on another, bad box out, a poor contest, a missed rebounding opportunity.
That's kept the Jazz from the win column, but not from improving as a whole.
"I feel like as a group we're playing really, really hard, and I feel like the camaraderie of the team has been pretty good," Sexton said.
