The good version of the Utah Jazz played the Miami Heat tough for 3.5 quarters on Saturday afternoon, on the road, and had a golden opportunity to get a much-needed win.
A few calls didn't go their way, and Miami started to come back and took the lead. All as Will Hardy watched his young team struggle against a physical Heat team that was out-hustling his guys in the heat of battle.
And what did Will Hardy do? He watched. And waited.
He had 2 timeouts in the bag, and didn't use one when the Heat tied the game at 102 with 7:53 remaining and the game becoming more physical.
As the Jazz went scoreless over the next 3 minutes, he kept the timeouts in the bag again.
By the 4:43 mark, when the Jazz cut a 4-point deficit to 1 (107-108), a timeout seemed warranted as Miami was pressuring in the backcourt and the Jazz were struggling with it mightily.
And then Miami proceeded to open up an 8 point lead by the 2:37 mark of the 4th. Yet, Will Hardy wanted to save those timeouts.
Not until 24 seconds were remaining did he finally call one, with the Jazz down by 6, and the game seemingly over. The Jazz lost by that margin, with a final score of 126-120 for Miami.
Keyonte George had a monster of a game, with 31 points, 4 assists, and 4 rebounds, and was aggressive throughout.
We can talk about the officials' missing a lot of fouls late, about turnovers, about THT and Collin Sexton making ill-advised drives to the basket, Omer Yurtseven playing only 15 minutes (he was a +10 and Miami was hesitant to drive on him).
But the bottom line - Will Hardy cost the Utah Jazz a game tonight, one that was very winnable against a shorthanded Heat team, who the Jazz were outplaying early on (19-3 in 2nd chance points at the half). These are the kinds of games that will cost a coach down the line, at times their job if too many of them add up.