Utah coach Will Hardy appeared to make a serious timeout blunder in the final seconds of his side’s narrow loss to the LA Lakers.
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Hardy stopped play as Jazz guard Collin Sexton was making a potential go-ahead basket with 1.6 seconds left and his side down 104-105, taking the score off the board.
“No, no, no, no, no basket!” the lead commentator on Spectrum Sportsnet said as the Jazz fans cheered wildly before realising what had happened.
The analyst added: “He called a timeout? Why would he call a timeout? I mean, what?!
“Hardy was right there when they got the defensive stop, and he gave the motion to keep going. Then when they get in position to attack, he’s running to midcourt to call a timeout!
“Lakers will take it every day of the week.”
Hardy then designed an in-bounds play for Sexton but he fumbled the ball and did not get a shot off in time before the buzzer, giving the Lakers the win.
SIMMONS EXITS WITH KNEE INJURY AS NETS FALL TO MAGIC AGAIN
Incompetence against the East continued for the Nets, as did their misery against the Magic.
The Nets suffered a 100-92 loss to Orlando on Monday (all times AEDT) before a crowd of 16,505 at Barclays Center.
The defeat dropped them to 9-12. It also marked their fifth straight loss to the Magic and saw them fall to 3-11 against the Eastern Conference, which is not exactly packed with powerhouses other than Boston and Cleveland.
Granted, the Nets were shorthanded, playing without leading scorer Cam Thomas (hamstring), plus-minus leader Dorian Finney-Smith (ankle) and key frontcourt reserves Noah Clowney and Day’Ron Sharpe. That showed up on the boards.
The Nets were hammered, 52-33, on the glass and outscored, 53-38, in the paint.
Cam Johnson scored a team-high 25 points, and Dennis Schroder added 20 and seven assists in his return from personal leave. It wasn’t enough to overcome their deficiencies in the paint and on the boards.
Ben Simmons also left with a knee contusion and did not return.
Franz Wagner had 20 points, nine rebounds and eight assists to lead Orlando (15-7).
The game was knotted at 83-all before a 3-pointer from Kentavious Caldwell-Pope broke the deadlock for good.
Schroder fed Johnson for a fast-break dunk to cut the deficit to one. But the Nets surrendered six unanswered points and never challenged again.
A Wendell Carter dunk made it 88-85 Orlando with 5:13 remaining. Then Schroder was whistled for a charge on Wagner, and Carter (14 points, seven rebounds) made a pair of free throws with 4:33 to play.
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After Nic Claxton had a bad pass stolen by Caldwell-Pope, the Magic wing scored a layup the other way. The Nets trailed, 92-85, with 4:09 left in regulation.
Claxton eventually was ejected for a Flagrant 2 with 18.1 seconds left.
The Nets largely held Wagner in check. The German forward was a horrid 4 of 17 from the floor and 0 of 6 from behind the arc.
The Nets were outscored by 38 points in their earlier two meetings with the Magic, a 116-101 loss on Oct. 25 in Orlando and 123-100 loss Saturday in Brooklyn. Wagner scored 29 in each game.
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“Obviously, our focus has to be better throughout the whole game. We were fighting and competing three minutes to go in the second. They went on a 13-0 run and that was the first separation they created,” head coach Jordi Fernandez said. “And then out of the locker room at halftime, they punched again, and we couldn’t respond.
“We turned it over a lot, 20 times overall for 34 points. So those are the little things we have to do better. And how we do it, right? So, we couldn’t contain them. We couldn’t protect our paint. We couldn’t defend the 3-point line. So, all those things that we know and we’ve watched and we’re willing to do better in this third time that we play them.”
Unlike those contests, this one had plenty of ebbs and flows, and it was close throughout.
After Schroder’s free throw put the Nets up, 53-52, with 10:41 left in the third, they allowed a 12-2 run.
Wagner capped it with a free throw to put Orlando up, 64-55, with 6:32 remaining in the quarter.
But the Nets rode a four-minute, 17-6 run that spanned the third and fourth quarters. Schroder put them back ahead, 76-75, and the game went back-and-fourth until the Magic seized it in the waning moments.
-This story was originally published in The New York Post and reproduced with permission.
CAVS BEAT CELTS, ROCKETS DOWN THUNDER IN NBA STATEMENTS
The Cleveland Cavaliers and Houston Rockets made big statements wins over title favourites Boston Celtics and Oklahoma City Thunder.
The Cavaliers came back from double digits to edge the Celtics at home 115-111 in a heavyweight battle between the two top seeds in the Eastern Conference.
Donovan Mitchell poured in 20 of his 35 points in the fourth quarter — shooting 6-of-6 from the field and 4-of-4 from 3-point land — with eight points in 67 seconds to lead his side to a big statement win over the reigning NBA champions.
Mitchell scored 15 in the last three minutes of the game and Cleveland withstood a nine-point surge from Payton Prichard inside the last 18 second to remain atop of the East standings at 18-3.
“For us, we’ve got to go out there and make a statement,” Mitchell said. “They beat us in the NBA Cup. No excuse. We’ve got to go out there and try to build. We had two losses that really hurt. We weren’t playing like ourselves. We needed this win.”
Darius Garland chipped in 22 points and eight assists for the Cavs, while Jayson Tatum’s 33 points led Boston.
The Celtics, who remain two games inside the East’s No. 2 seed at 16-4, were without both Jaylen Brown (illness) and Derrick White (right foot sprain).
Kristaps Porzingis stepped up with season highs in points (21), 3-pointers (three) rebounds (eight) and minutes (32) following the star centre’s return from off-season ankle surgery last week.
In the later game, the Rockets completed their own mini comeback over OKC in a 119-116 win in Houston thanks to a 38-point explosion from Fred VanVleet.
VanVleet scored 12 in the fourth quarter — including seven of Houston’s final nine points — to guide his team to victory.
The 15-6 Rockets, who have won three in a row including 10 of their last 12, are now breathing down the 15-5 Thunder’s necks, a game behind them in the West’s No. 1 seed.
Alperen Sengun racked up 20 points, 14 rebounds and nine assists for Houston, while Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s 32 points paced the visitors and Isaiah Hartenstein added 19 points and 13 rebounds.
ALL RESULTS
MAGIC 100 NETS 92
PACERS 121 GRIZZLIES 136
CELTICS 111 CAVALIERS 115
PELICANS 85 KNICKS 118
HEAT 116 RAPTORS 119
THUNDER – ROCKETS
LAKERS 105 JAZZ 104
MAVERICKS – TRAIL BLAZERS
SPURS – KINGS
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