Inside The Jazz

Jazz HC Will Hardy Expresses Optimism After 128-131 Loss vs. Suns

The Utah Jazz head coach saw some good signs from Friday night’s game against the Phoenix Suns.

Jared Koch

Jazz HC Will Hardy Expresses Optimism After 128-131 Loss vs. Suns
Jazz HC Will Hardy Expresses Optimism After 128-131 Loss vs. Suns /
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The Utah Jazz took on the Phoenix Suns during Friday’s In-Season Tournament with hopes to win their third straight game of the tourney. While things did not quite go as expected, ending up with a 128-131 loss, it was far from the disastrous showing we saw during their first matchup earlier in the season. Utah played this talented team extremely well the entire way through.

After Friday night’s game, Will Hardy spoke at the podium with some positive takeaways, despite not being able to ultimately close it out with a win.

“It was a very hard-fought game against a good team,” Hardy said. "I think, if nothing else, it shows our group that we’re capable of playing with really anybody. But, for us to get to where we would like to be as a team in a place where we’re really winning at a high level, we’ve got to continue to grow from an execution standpoint in being able to squeeze a game."

The Jazz kept this one close until the last minutes, but hopes of a win ultimately fell flat once Kevin Durant drilled his trademark dagger three from the left wing, capping off his stellar 38-point outing. While Utah held its own with Jordan Clarkson posting 37 himself, it just was not enough to overcome this one. 

"We did a lot of hard work to get ourselves into a close game at the end, and winning and losing is always a very fine line,” Hardy continued. "It’s always little things on both ends of the floor that ultimately decide who wins and loses... I'm proud of the way that our team fought and hung in.”

The Jazz will look to get back to the wins column during Sunday night’s rematch against the Suns in Phoenix, set to tip off at 6 PM MT. 

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Jared Koch
JARED KOCH

Jared Koch is the Associate Editor of The Frozen Rope — SI.com's team website covering the Utah Jazz. He's covered the NBA and NFL for the past two years, also being the Managing Editor of Inside The Kings — SI.com's team website covering the Sacramento Kings.

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