A late entry in the best-sports-quotes-of-2023 category, courtesy of Utah Jazz Will Hardy, following his team’s 147-97 loss against the Dallas Mavericks on Wednesday:
“That was an absolutely horrendous performance from start to finish. That was a masterpiece of dogshit.”
Hardy went on to say that he was “most disappointed with our defensive intensity to start the game,” via the Deseret News‘ Sarah Todd. He called a timeout less than three minutes in, after the Mavericks had scored on each of their first five possessions. Following the timeout, Dallas scored on five of its next six possessions.
Utah trailed 40-29 at the end of the first quarter, and by halftime the Mavs’ Luka Doncic had already recorded a 29-point triple-double. Doncic finished with 40 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists in 32 minutes and didn’t play in the fourth quarter. Dallas led by as many as 52 points and recorded more assists (37) than the Jazz did field goals (35).
Utah was missing much of its firepower — Lauri Markkanen (hamstring), Jordan Clarkson (thigh) and Kelly Olynyk (shoulder) were all out — but this doesn’t explain what was going on defensively.
“I haven’t been disappointed in our team very often this year,” Hardy told reporters. “I think tonight, from the beginning of the game, it’s hard to place what the reason is, but it seemed like the Mavericks were moving at a different pace than we were.”
On the Jazz’s first defensive possession, John Collins and Ömer Yurtseven botched a switch, giving Doncic a wide-open 3:
A couple of minutes later, Keyonte George went under a down screen against Kyrie Irving, leading to a clean 3 from the same spot:
In the first half, the Jazz surrendered four alley-oops, all of them created by Doncic:
After this masterpiece, Utah is 7-14 and ranks 27th in net rating. It is 1-10 on the road, but will return home to face the Los Angeles Clippers, who have won 7 of their last 10 games, on Friday.
