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MEMPHIS — The headbands were out on Wednesday in Memphis.
All but one member of the Utah Jazz sported white NBA headbands for its game against the Grizzlies (Collin Sexton was the lone holdout, probably more to do with his hair than anything else).
So what caused the new addition to the uniform in the 122-115 loss? Let's throw out some theories.
Theory 1: The Jazz wanted to proudly display the NBA logo after the league fined Utah $100,000 on Wednesday for violating the player participation policy — which, in turn, allowed players to actually play. The fine shortened the Utah injury report quite a bit and Lauri Markkanen played for the first time in nine games.
Markkanen had 14 points and six rebounds in his return.
Theory 2: It was homage to Mike Conley. The Jazz didn't allow headbands until Conley arrived from Memphis and Quin Snyder changed the long-time rule Jerry Sloan famously enforced.
It should be noted that Sloan might have been fine with Wednesday's antics, though, since just about everyone was wearing one — the rule was mostly there to make sure the team was all wearing the same thing
Theory 3: Joe Ingles call back? It was an early-season game in Memphis when Ingles needed four stitches that required his head to be wrapped in medical tape — resembling a headband. However, Jordan Clarkson is probably the only one who remembers.
Theory 4: After six straight and 13 in a row on the road, maybe the team figured it would try something different?
So what was the real reason?
Isaiah Collier put one on due to his new hair style, so someone put one on as a joke. Soon enough, just about the entire was putting wearing one.
Whatever the reason, it almost worked.
The Jazz led 115-114 with a minute remaining but back-to-back triples by the Grizzlies in the final minute that pushed Memphis over the finish line.
Those threes, though, were by the two players that tormented the Jazz all night.
Luke Kennard hit the first one to cap off a 30-point night where he went 7-for-9 from 3-point range. Ja Morant nailed the second one after being left open up top; he finished with 28 points and seven assists. Oh, and he had one brouhaha with Collin Sexton.
With 2:07 left, Morant went for a high-flying alley-oop with Sexton standing under the basket. There was some slight contact between the two — hardly anything egregious — but that led to a drawn out yelling match between the players and they had to be separated multiple times.
Sexton then scored the next 4 points of the game to give Utah the lead before Morant finished off Utah with his straightaway triple.
Sexton had 22 points, eight rebounds and seven assists and John Collins added 22 points and seven rebounds for the Jazz, who came back from 19 points down to nearly steal the game at the end.
"I thought our team competed really hard," Jazz coach Will Hardy said. "But honestly, tonight was a night where the turnovers make it really hard for us."
Utah had 23 turnovers with most being of the live-ball variety. Hardy said the team can at times be too casual with the ball and assuming hard things are easy. He pointed to in-bound passes, entry passes and ill-advised outlet passes as some of the culprits.
And that spoiled a pretty well played game — and another magical headband moment.
"The hardest part is the hard work that the team is doing in all the other categories of the game gets wiped away," he said.
Which made Wednesday's loss sting just a little bit more.
"You hurt for the team some nights when you know how hard they are working, how locked in they are and how together they are," Hardy said. "I don't question the spirit of the team at all. This is one I really wanted for them."
