Jazz lose to the Bulls in a heartbreaker

Wednesday night's Utah Jazz game saw the Chicago Bulls come to town, a team with a similar record. It appeared to be another chance for a Jazz team to get a win, in a late-season stretch that is one of the toughest in the NBA, with wins being hard to come by.

To add to the difficulty of getting a win, Keyonte George and Taylor Hendricks joined Lauri Markkanen and Walker Kessler on the injury report tonight.

As a result, the starting lineup consisted of John Collins, Luka Samanic, Brice Sensabaugh, Collin Sexton, and Kris Dunn.

The Bulls made the Jazz pay early in this one, hitting seven 3-pointers in the first quarter as the Jazz defenders were slow to rotate on the perimeter.

The 2nd quarter continued this trend, as the Bulls made 6 more from deep, to extend their lead to 63-54 at the half.

In the 3rd the Jazz kept things even, as John Collins, Collin Sexton, and Jordan Clarkson combined for 22 of Utah's 29 points in the period, yet the Jazz still gave up 30 points to trail by 10 heading into the final period.

In the 4th, the Jazz woke up and decided to make a game of it, closing the gap to 2 points (101-99) at the 7:32 mark on an Omer Yurtseven jump shot. The Bulls scored a few baskets over the next several minutes as the Jazz went cold before John Collins scored a 3 at the 5:23 mark to break the drought.

With just under 3 minutes, the Jazz got back within 2 on a Brice Sensabaugh jumper, then tied it shortly after with a Clarkson dunk. The game stayed close down to the final seconds, at 117-116 for Chicago when a Collin Sexton foul on DeMar DeRozan to stop the clock spurred an altercation.

This took place near the Chicago bench, and play stopped for over 6 minutes while the officials sorted out what had happened.

John Collins and Torrey Craig were both issued technical fouls, as was a Bulls assistant who got involved. Ultimately they offset the Collins and Craig techs and gave Utah one free throw for the assistant's T, before DeMar DeRozan got to the line for Chicago, making both to give the Bulls a 2-point lead with 9.1 seconds remaining.

After a Utah timeout, the Jazz inbounded at halfcourt, with Jordan Clarkson taking a parking lot 3 a bit too early in the clock that missed. However, Chicago's Coby White stepped out of bounds while rebounding the ball, giving Utah the ball again with 4.1 seconds left and one more chance to win or send it to overtime.

The Jazz inbounded after a timeout, and Collin Sexton had a super-open look, so much that he hesitated before pulling the trigger on a 3, which missed, and the game came to an end with the Bulls winning 119-117 in a heartbreaker for the Jazz and their fans.

John Collins led the Jazz with 25 points, 13 rebounds and 2 blocked shots on the night.

Collin Sexton poured in 24 points and had 4 rebounds and 7 assists as well.

Brice Sensabaugh had 15 points and 12 rebounds in 30 minutes, in his best performance for the Jazz so far.

The Jazz (28-35) move on to Saturday's home game against the Denver Nuggets (42-20).