Jazz's Will Hardy Reacts to Brice Sensabaugh's 43-Point Explosion

The Utah Jazz, despite the disheartening results of a narrow 126-128 road loss to the Chicago Bulls that came down to a last-second miss from Keyonte George, had a far from poor night to watch the Jazz take the floor, thanks to the electric scoring night seen from third-year wing Brice Sensabaugh.

Sensabaugh had his highest scoring night ever with a whopping 43 points from start to finish, combined with an impressive 28 points off the bench in the first quarter, showing just the type of offensive prowess he can show when things are firing on all cylinders.

Of course, such a performance caught the attention of Jazz head coach Will Hardy at the podium following the loss, where he highlighted the growth of Sensabaugh's scoring ability and the opportunity that's come with it.

"As we saw tonight, and have seen a bunch of times before, there's a lot of other things that Brice can do. He's a good scorer in isolation, kind of using his body, creating space. I think the work he's done on his body, you're seeing a different level of explosiveness when he plays downhill towards the basket. But, I think the opportunity that he's gotten has done something that's allowed him to settle in," Hardy said of Sensabaugh.

Jan 8, 2026; Salt Lake City, Utah, USA; Utah Jazz head coach Will Hardy acknowledges the Dallas Mavericks bench at the end of the game at Delta Center. Mandatory Credit: Rob Gray-Imagn Images | Rob Gray-Imagn Images

"When you're young, you're not playing a ton of minutes, and you're shooting a lot of catch and shoots, the weight of every shot can get pretty heavy. And so I think the situation has changed a little bit for Brice, and that's allowed him to reveal more of his game."

Brice Sensabaugh Flourished for Jazz vs. Bulls

For the season, Sensabaugh's averaging 11.0 points, 2.9 rebounds, and 1.5 assists while shooting 44.4% from the field and 33.2% from three—being one of just five players on the Jazz roster scoring in double figures throughout the first half of the year.

And while in this one, Sensabaugh wound up coming off the bench for the second time in his last 10 games, with the green light clearly lit and having the hot hand, the opportunity was still there for the taking to have one of the best nights of his career in Chicago; something that's been done by design for Hardy and the Jazz coaching staff.

"I think he's gotten more opportunity, first and foremost, and that's helped him settle into games and show the wide variety of things that he can do," Hardy continued.

"I felt like last year in particular, we did so much work with Brice, and he did so much work on trying to really develop himself as a catch-and-shoot, three-point player... Brice has been a scorer his whole life. Last year, we wanted to make a priority of that facet of scoring; focusing on his catch-and-shoot, and I thought he did a really good job."

Expect to see more and more from Sensabaugh in the rotation further into the year as he continues to hone his versatility and efficiency, while also getting that extended opportunity from Hardy––and especially if his confidence and scoring effectiveness keep looking as strong as it did against the Bulls, it'll be pretty hard to keep him off the floor.

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