Jazz's Will Hardy Issues Blunt Statement After Blowout Loss vs. Kings

After coming off of their best win of the season against the Portland Trail Blazers, the Utah Jazz had a polar opposite showing during their road contest on Sunday, as they fell to the Sacramento Kings in blowout fashion, 97-141.

The game fell out of hand pretty early, as the Jazz were down 17 points at the half while shooting a collective 34.2% from the field. Things didn't quite improve in the second half, as the Kings shot a stellar 62% from the field and 65% from three on 13 makes. The loss effectively drops Utah to 5-18 on the season, failing to net their first two-game win streak of the year.

Following the contest, third-year head coach Will Hardy sounded off on what he saw during the Jazz's 44-point loss.

"Yeah, we got our butts kicked," Hardy said. "They made a lot of jump shots tonight. We gave up 44 points in the paint, and they made five free throws. So, that's a heck of a lot of jump shots made in one game. That's the way the NBA is now. Games can feel crazy when teams are getting hot shooting the ball from kind of everywhere."

The Kings had six players scoring in double-digits, with the effort being spearheaded by a 26-point performance from Kevin Huerter off the bench.

As for the Jazz, Keyonte George led the way with 25 points, five rebounds, six assists, and four steals, while Lauri Markkanen struggled in his first game returning from his back injury, posting eight points shooting 22.2% from the field on nine shots.

Overall, the offense was clearly showing their growing pains, as Utah ended the night with 20 turnovers and 38.8% FG shooting.

"[20] turnovers, again, is a tough number, but that's a really, really talented offensive team that they have," Hardy continued. "They have a lot of guys that can shoot the ball. Fox made some mid-range shots tonight that I thought, a couple of them were tough, a couple of them were open. But, for the most part, I felt like the Fox-Sabonis piece of the game; they were guarded relatively well for the majority of the night. Huerter really made an impact on this game off the bench. He's a really, really good player that moves really well off the ball, and every time he was open tonight, he made us pay."

"There's a lot of work to be done," Hardy said. "Tonight we didn't do a great job of recognizing the personnel. They deserve credit for their shot-making tonight. There are things to clean up, for sure. On the flip side, we did not make shots. I think we were five for 16 in the paint in the first half... And ultimately, the turnovers really ended up hurting us tonight."

The Jazz will have some time to recover after the loss, as they're set to have a four-day rest ahead of them before facing off against the Phoenix Suns on their home floor on Friday, December 13th.

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