DETROIT — If your bingo card had injuries, players arguing with fans, police officers standing in between players and fans, players squaring up with one another, multiple ejections, bloody noses or a coach getting a technical foul, then you were a big winner on Thursday night!
To say that the game was chaotic would be an understatement. But, despite emotions being high, the Utah Jazz were able to come away with a 126-119 win over the Detroit Pistons.
When it was all said and done, Utah Jazz head coach Will Hardy came away believing that the Jazz were better for having to play in a game in which the extracurriculars could have been distracting and the tension in the room felt as thick as the distance between Salt Lake City and Detroit. Even if the Jazz hadn’t managed to come away with the win, playing in this type of game was good for the Jazz.
“The chaos is good, the heightened emotion is good, this is a situation that’s good for us,” Hardy said. “Let’s reframe it in our brain. There’s nothing to panic about. Like, I wish every game was a little bit chaotic and disruptive like that. I don’t wish that everybody was bleeding and I don’t wish that we would fight every game, but the tension in the building, I think, was just good for our group.”
It all started with the Jazz scoring a blistering 48 points in the opening quarter with Keyonte George and Collin Sexton going a combined 6-of-6 from 3-point range, the team scoring 18 fast break points and the defense swarming around the floor, allowing just 19 first-quarter points by the Pistons.
But from that point on, Detroit ratcheted up its defensive intensity and physicality. They hounded the Jazz’s ball handlers, picked them up full court, blitzed plays, top locked screens and blew up actions all night long in an effort to chip away at the Jazz’s lead. The Jazz were outscored in the second, third and fourth quarters but the lead they built in the first was enough to carry them through one of the most chaotic games in recent memory.
George came down awkwardly on his left ankle a couple of times and eventually started to limp off the court toward the locker room. Coincidentally everything that happened next was during a technical free throw for Lauri Markkanen because of a foul committed by former Jazz man Malik Beasley.
As George limped off the court, he got into a heated exchange with a fan that was sitting about three rows behind the basket. A police officer quickly got between George and the fan. Then, as George walked toward the visiting locker room, the officer escorted the fan into the opposite tunnel.
Eventually the fan was allowed to come back to his seat — a Pistons spokesperson said the fan was reminded of the NBA code of conduct and given a minute to cool down — which was the outcome George said he was hoping for. He said he didn’t want the guy to be kicked out, but also wanted to make sure that his piece was heard as well. Ultimately, nothing over the line was said and the spat was resolved.
George got his ankle re-taped and returned to action later in the night.
But George’s injury and argument with the fan would not be the only emotional or chaotic part of the night. And Hardy said that Detroit is a team that puts pressure on their opponents mentally and physically which is what the Jazz needed.
“It was super physical, chippy, ugly, nasty. There’s turnovers, there’s fouls, there’s fights, there’s a level of tension in the game and in the arena that we really haven’t seen this year,” Hardy said. “And Detroit’s an incredibly hard playing team. They’re really physical. And I think they they really test your emotional stability. Are you going to crack? Are you going to just fall apart?”
Paul Reed ran into Jordan Clarkson a couple of times and then rookie Ron Holland came over, seemingly in defense of his teammate. But Holland quickly squared up with Jordan Clarkson who also put his fists up. At that point officials raced over and the teams were separated. Holland and Clarkson were both ejected.
Piston’s coach J.B. Bickerstaff got a technical foul for screaming at an official after a foul call he disagreed with. Retired player Jalen Rose was heckling the Jazz constantly from his court side seats. Walker Kessler got a bloody nose. George had an insane posterizing dunk over Jalen Duren (yes, Keyonte George can dunk). Fans were booing the Pistons. Fans were booing the Jazz. Fans were screaming at every perceived slight.
All of it made for a really tough environment to play in, but did that Jazz enjoy that?
“Hell yeah!” John Collins said. “It gives me something else to motivate myself. It’s all about not falling into the trap, or getting too emotionally involved in whatever situation. But for me, and feel like a lot of the guys on the team, we have fun when moments like that happen.”
