Jazz's Will Hardy Sounds Off on 'Chippy, Gritty' Win vs. Pistons

The Utah Jazz took care of business on Thursday night in a wild road bout vs. the Detroit Pistons, 119-126-- a game that had high-flying dunks, an almost second-half comeback from Detroit, and even a pair of ejections between Jordan Clarkson and Ron Holland after the two squared up in the third quarter.

After the game, coach Will Hardy sounded off on some of his thoughts from the Jazz's performance, and what he saw out of a tough and gritty Detroit group.

"I think that game was really, really good for our team," Hardy said. "There were a lot of things from that game that were obvious, right? 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. And Detroit is an incredibly hard-playing team. They're really physical, and I think they, sort of, test your emotional stability. Like, 'Are you going to crack? Are you going to just fall apart?"

The Jazz's winning effort was led by a strong three-man trio in the starting lineup-- Collin Sexton, Lauri Markkanen, and Keyonte George. Each had 27 points or more on the night, while Markkanen also stood out as a beast on the boards, hauling in a game-high 14 rebounds on the night.

Utah took major control in the first quarter when they leapt ahead 48-19, but the Pistons didn't do out quietly. By the end, the Jazz's lead was cut to single digits, thanks to an impressive showing from 2021 first-overall pick Cade Cunningham, who had a game-high 33 points paired with four rebounds and seven assists.

"I think the best part about that game was, there were moments of high emotion for our group that come with the territory of playing in a game like that, but it didn't fracture us," Hardy continued. Like, we were in those moments together... We had a ton of guys make a ton of big plays, but playing in that type of environment shows our team that there's a lot of different ways to win. There's a lot of different types of games you can play in. We have not seen a game like that all year. I don't know if I've seen a game like that in five years."

The Jazz will look to try and secure their first two-game win streak of the regular season with their next road battle on Saturday, as they'll travel up to New York to face off against the 11-16 Brooklyn Nets.

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