Will Hardy Sounds Off on Controversial Timeout in Jazz-Lakers

The Utah Jazz head coach made a questionable decision on Sunday's game.

Dec 1, 2024; Salt Lake City, Utah, USA; Utah Jazz head coach Will Hardy calls a play against the Los Angeles Lakers during the first half at the Delta Center. Mandatory Credit: Christopher Creveling-Imagn Images / Christopher Creveling-Imagn Images

The Utah Jazz came up just short in heartbreaking fashion on Sunday night, as they fell in a back-to-back effort to the Los Angeles Lakers for their eighth loss in nine games.

The largest story of the night comes from the final minute of the contest, as Collin Sexton drove to the basket for a layup and potential game-winner, all to be washed away by a late Will Hardy timeout that effectively called the play dead, and eventually led to their 104-105 loss.

Jazz coach Will Hardy wipes away Collin Sexton's game-winner with a timeout.

Lakers win.pic.twitter.com/XSBpqh3yh7

— Underdog NBA (@Underdog__NBA) December 2, 2024

After the game, Hardy was questioned at the podium about his decision to call the head-scratching timeout.

"Obviously, the timeout-- we like to let people go in that situation," Hardy said." When Collin [Sexton] started, he did a retreat dribble backward, started calling timeout. It's obviously loud. The hope would have been to have a few more seconds left than 2.1. Yeah, it's tough. In that moment, yeah. It's tough."

"The refs have a hard job in that moment because they all have something to watch. But, there's also one of them usually that's thinking about if I'm going to call a timeout or not, or if the other coach is going to call a timeout or not. But, yeah, those decisions are in a split second."

Hardy dove a bit deeper into his rationale to actually call the late-game timeout, noting that his instinct is to call time once his guys start moving backward-- a move Sexton made before driving to the rim for his shot.

"I know myself, and I know I like the team with nine seconds when we get the rebounds; eight seconds-- you want to let them go," Hardy continued. "And usually, my instinct is the second we start going backward, we call a timeout. But, I know I would've loved for it to be 3.5 seconds instead of 2.1. but that's where the human factor of all of this comes into play."

"It's hard, because you don't know exactly how this would've ended up had they not blown the whistle and everybody kept playing," Hardy said. "Maybe Collin would've finished it. I told Bull in the locker room I robbed him of a moment at the end of the game. But, you go into these situations, you practice these situations. You have cues and things that you're looking for-- didn't go our way."

With this loss, the Jazz drop to a 4-16 record in their first 20 matchups of the season, placing them 14th in the Western Conference ahead of only the equally struggling 4-17 New Orleans Pelicans.

The Jazz will have a one-day rest before getting back on the road come Tuesday vs. the top seed in the West-- the Oklahoma City Thunder.

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