Ben Talks Ball

Basketball is a game of runs. You’ll score 8 in a row, the other responds with 8 of their own. It’s a beautiful pendulum of momentum that swings back and forth until the final buzzer. The NBA season operates with the same ebbs and flows. Teams that dig themselves into an early season hole can make up ground as over the months, while others that start off hot can cool off as the 82 game marathon wears on. This is a long way for me to say that in the over the season you have highs that are extremely high, and lows that are extremely low. And nobody went through a more extreme low recently than the Utah Jazz.

Despite just trading away their two franchise centerpieces (Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert), the Jazz got off to a surprisingly hot start. Thanks to relentless hustle and effort, bombing away from three, and the emergence of Lauri Markkanen as an All-Star caliber player, Utah came out the gate swinging to a 10-3 start. Naturally, as time wore on, shooting statistics began to regress back to the mean, and the Jazz’s time as the top seed in the Western Conference was short lived. Regardless, Utah came into their December 26th matchup against the lowly Spurs sitting at 19-16, 3 games above .500, the 7th seed, and riding a 2 game win streak. Then, they entered a roller coaster of insanity so poetic you would’ve though Rod Sterling wrote it. And you know what? Maybe he did.

“You unlock this door with the key of imagination. Beyond it is another dimension: a dimension of sound, a dimension of sight, a dimension of mind. You’re moving into a land of both shadow and substance, of things and ideas; you’ve just crossed over into… The Twilight Zone“

It appeared as if the Jazz were a team of destiny. But after Christmas went by, things began to go awry.

The fans grew restless, the media began to criticize, and the pressure mounted. It seemed like the team was stuck in a never-ending cycle of uniquely heartbreaking defeat.

What torturous fates were these people subjected too? Was it simply a case of biblically horrible luck? Or was this perpetrated by a much more sinister force? Discover for yourself, as you join the Utah Jazz in their journey through… The Twilight Zone!

Monday, December 26th: Hope Springs Eternal

Oftentimes, disaster don’t start with a bang. The implosion is a byproduct of a very subtle inciting incident. Something that seems innocuous at the time, but in hindsight can be accurately labeled as the signal of forthcoming calamity. For the Jazz this warning sign came on a sleepy December night in San Antonio. Maybe it was the difficulty of spending Christmas night in a hotel, maybe they had some Tex-Mex before the game that didn’t quite sit right, but for whatever reason Utah came out flat against the 10-22 Spurs. At one point the lead swelled up to 20 points, but (as will become a theme throughout this article) the Jazz didn’t quit. The two teams traded baskets until Utah went on a frenetic 7 point run in 33 seconds, highlighted by this impressive sequence. However, this was more of a last gasp than final push, and Tre Jones iced the game with two late buckets (someone wants to move up the rankings).

While this was certainly a disappointing loss, it’s not a back breaking one. At this point, the team is still 19-17 with a date against the Steph-less Warriors on the second night of a back-to-back next up. All they have to do is stay calm and not let this spiral out of control.

Wednesday, December 28th: They Let it Spiral out of Control

Not only were the Warriors missing their MVP candidate/top 10 player of all-time Stephen Curry, but they were also short Klay Thompson and Andrew Wiggins, both high level contributors on a team without a lot of them. Despite Utah’s lead swelling up to 12 early in the 2nd, Golden State just wouldn’t go away. The alarms should’ve been blaring when a 23 point half from Lauri Markkanan only gave the Jazz a 5 point lead going into the 3rd. A Ty Jerome (yes Ty Jerome, who also played 30 minutes and dropped 17 points.) steal and pull up 3 gave the Warriors their first lead since 4-2.

Now remember, these aren’t just normal losses. A normal losing streak gets swept under the rug with all the other painful sports memories (I’m a Kings fan, I’ve seen plenty). No, we’re in the Twilight Zone, where each loss gets more excruciating than the last. So instead of the Warriors just running away with the game at the end, the Jazz (like they always do) battled back. After surviving two of the most chaotic possessions I’ve seen all season, Jordan Clarkson nailed a clutch 3 to bring Utah within 1 with 2 minutes to go. Jordan Poole then proceeded to knife through the defense to stretch the lead back to 3. The Jazz went to the line on their next two possessions, and forced a turnover in between.

Surely they went up by 1, right?

So so brutal.

Golden State went on to win 107-112, and the Jazz hang just one game over .500.

12/30: Enter Red Velvet

Historically speaking, the Kings have been the cure for an ailing team. Losing streak? Come on down to Sacramento, we’ll let you have a get right game. This year? Not so much.

In an inverse of the previous game, Utah trailed the majority of the game and managed to weather the storm long enough to pull ahead at the beginning of the 4th. The teams traded punches throughout the entire 4th quarter, the highlight being De’Aaron Fox’s monster poster over Kelly Olynyk, who had a profoundly shitty week. Fox played the entire 4th quarter, and was his usual sublime self, scoring 11 points and dropping 4 dimes in the final period alone. However, the hero of the night for the Kings was Red Velvet himself: Kevin Huerter.

K’Von dropped 15 points on 6-8 shooting, including 3/4 from 3. He torched the Jazz at every level, (ADD MORE AFTER MAKING KEV MIX). But even when it looked like the Kings were pulling away with a 8 point lead with 3 minutes left, the Jazz did what they always do and mounted a furious comeback. Get a few stops, knockdown a few shots, and before you know it Lauri Markkanen is drilling his first 3 of the night to give the Jazz a 122-121 lead with a minute to go. Huerter missed a 3, then Lauri scored his 36th point of the night to give the Jazz a 4 point lead with 30 seconds left.

A quick aside, it’s hard to overstate just how good Markkanen was in this stretch of games. He averaged 31-11 with 50% shooting on 19 shots a game over the 5 game stretch from hell. He also had one or multiple clutch shots every night. The Jazz got a good one

Back to Sacramento, Foxy nailed a tough jumped to bring the Utah lead back to 1, then fouled Mike Conley to save time. Conley stepped up to the line AND MISSED THE FIRST SHOT. He made the second, but for those keeping track at home, the Jazz are now 2-6 in crunch time free throws in the last two games. Crucially, this meant the Utah lead hung at a precarious 2 instead of 3, which was all the margin needed for Kevin Huerter to call game, after yet another incredibly chaotic and stressful possession.

Game. Blouses. (I wish my recording would’ve clipped the audio, this is the single loudest crowd pop I’ve heard all season. If you wanna hear it go here.)

Markkanen would miss a tough shot on the other end, and Sac would escape with a win. Utah falls to 19-19, and the 10th seed in the West. But we’re not done yet. Far from it, in fact.

12/31: Going Out With A Bang

Over the past 3 games, the Jazz have 1) Lost to a team they should’ve beat handily 2) Gave up a double digit lead and lost and 3) Comeback from a double digit deficit and still lost. There’s one type of loss that they’ve managed to elude thus far, arguably the worst of them all: the buzzer beater.

Welp.

20 lead changes, 14 ties, this game was wire to wire from jump. Bam Adebayo went nuts, dropping 32-8-5. Larui put up 29-14 and Jordan Clarkson had 22, but what kept Utah in the game was their bench. Microwave Malik Beasely had 5 threes and despite not scoring well, rookie Walker Kessler was huge (literally) on defense, gobbling up 12 boards to go along with 3 blocks. But of course, it was all for naut. Tyler Herro made sure of it (despite scoring 29, Herro shot 3-11 from 3, making this shot even more heartbreaking).

Maybe the Jazz could take solace in the fact that the yea was finally over, and they’d have some time off before they played again. Sure, Utah face-planted into the new year with an 0-4 week in which they lost games by 4,5,1, and 3, but the week was over! Basketball is a game of runs, remember? Thanks to the massive amounts of parity in the league, Utah could erase this week with one decent winning streak. Somehow, after everything, even after the year ended with the sports equivalent of a kick to the balls, the Jazz would have a chance to right the ship.

1/3: New Year, Same Team

If you can believe it, we’ve actually saved the best for last. As time has gone on each game has become more and more absurd, and this is the grand finale. Once again, the Kings jumped out to a double digit advantage and once again Utah stormed back to take a late lead. Unfortunately for the Jazz (but very fortunately for yours truly), De’All Star Fox decided he wasn’t going to lose. Here’s all the Kings’ scoring plays in the 4th quarter:

Fox 3 Fox 1 Monk 2 Fox 2 Fox 2 Murray 2 Murray 1 Fox 2 Fox 2 Fox 2 Huerter 2 Fox 1 Fox 1 Fox 2 Fox 2 Fox 2

9/10 from the field, 22 points, and a perfect 3-3 in the final 2 minutes. His final make was a go-ahead layup that left 0.4 on the clock. One would assume the game was over, the Jazz had literally less then half a second to advance the ball fullcourt(they were out of timeouts) and get a shot off. But remember, this team never quits.

Lauri Markkanan drilled one of the most improbable shots I’ve ever seen, only to come up literally a tenth of a second too late. It has to be such a uniquely painful feeling to watch your team snatch victory from the jaws of defeat, only to have the victory ripped away just as quickly as it was obtained.

Quick sidebar- I was watching this game live (like I do every Kings game), but about halfway through the third I had to leave to watch Avatar 2 with my friends. So naturally, once I got into the theater I turned the game on in there. With my apologies to Mr. James Cameron, I didn’t catch the first 20 minutes of the movie because I was too busy watching De’Aaron Fox’s masterclass. It was so hard not to pop off in the theater. Anyway, after I saw De’Aaron make the layup I turned to my friend (who had $45 on the Kings moneyline) and said, “That’s game. He’s so FUCKING good.” only to look back at my screen to see the Lauri shot go in and the Jazz lose their minds celebrating. Keep in mind, I had no sound on (I’m not THAT rude), so I had no idea the shot was going to be ruled off until I saw the angle on the replay. It was the most rapid shift from euphoria to pain back to euphoria I’ve ever had. The movie was pretty good too (you gotta give Cameron credit, he can direct the hell out of a movie).

I’m not sure if there could’ve been a more perfect game to end this journey with. The only possible way to top the heartbreak of a game winning buzzer beater against you is to have your own that doesn’t count. It was the perfect cap to one of the most bizarre stretches I’ve ever seen from a basketball team. A Shakespearian tragedy, with faint glimmers of hope snuffed out by the cold hard boot of the universe. Did they anger the basketball gods? Or, is it the more likely answer(and the more terrifying one): the Jazz simply had a bad stretch.

That’s the thing about the NBA’s Twilight Zone, nobody asks for it. Nobody knows when it’s coming, they just know that it will. The only solace you can draw is that one day it’ll pass. The Jazz managed to exorcise their demons in their next game, a shellacking of the Rockets behind 49 points from Lauri Markkanan. They’ve gone 4-3 since the curse has been lifted, even winning a one point game of their own against Rudy Gobert and Minnesota thanks to clutch free throws by Jordan Clarkson and 20/20 from Walker Kessler. Will they make the playoffs? Who knows, the Western Conference is so chaotic right now the seedings flip every night. What matters is that they’ve finally escaped.

It’s not over quite yet. Since losing to Utah, the Rockets have lost 6 straight, extending their losing streak to 10 games. The team is shambles, the front office is under fire, and all the problems I talked about early in season have somehow gotten worse. It’s almost as if the team’s entered a world different from ours. A dimension where horrors become reality, one where every jumper rims out, one where Tim Donaghy referees every game.

For one team to exit, another must fall victim to… The Twilight Zone!