Will Hardy Proud of Utah Jazz After Bounce Back Win vs. Rockets

The Utah Jazz, in a back-to-back rematch against the Houston Rockets following a blowout loss the night before, wound up rebounding in a major way to capitalize on their sixth win of the season, winning 133-125 against one of the better teams in the Western Conference.

Lauri Markkanen had a 29-piece, Keyonte George had 28 points himself, and in a solid effort through all four quarters, the Jazz made this one’s end result look immensely different from their 20-plus-point blowout over the weekend.

 Jazz head coach Will Hardy handed some notable praise to his guys after the win, crediting their effort and cohesion throughout the entire 48 minutes that led to the home win.

“I’m really proud of the team’s response after yesterday,” Hardy said. “That’s a really good team we just played. We talked pre-game a little bit about it not being about how we start the game. It’s that we have to sustain our focus for 48 minutes. We gonna have to go through some tough moments. And I thought for the majority of the game, we played really, really cohesive basketball on both sides of the floor.”

“It shows that we’re capable of focusing as a group. It shows that we are capable of managing emotional moments… A lot of guys contributed to the win. I want our team and our fans to enjoy this one..”

Will Hardy Looking to Build Belief in Utah Jazz

It’s a game for the Jazz that shows the glimpses of potential this roster holds for the future, with Utah’s offense looking efficient shooting 50% from the field and 40% from three, their duo of Markkanen and George keeping the hot hand, and combined with a total of seven players posting double figures.

That type of night can offer some welcomed confidence, but also some belief in the building following a couple of weeks where the losses have piled up, and for Hardy, presents clear results that the process of building a winning roster is slowly coming to form.

“You’re always looking for indicators that the work’s paying off. It would be in anything that anyone’s doing where you’re trying to make progress,” Hardy continued.

“Like, everybody says process over results, and I agree. But you do want to see some results. to make you feel like the process is working. And I feel like this type of a game, after yesterday, adjusting their mindset, tweaking a few things, it’s showing them that the work is paying off.”

“That helps build, not just confidence, it builds belief, which I think is a little bit different. So these types of things are important. We do very much believe in having a clean process that will get us the best results, but along the way, the players, they’re the ones in the middle of the fight every night. For them to actually get good results does help their belief in the process.”

The Jazz are still on track for a rebuilding season moving forward in the calendar, and with the implications of their top-eight protected pick in the hands of the OKC Thunder, keeping focus on finding the bottom of the standings will likely be a bigger priority for Utah as the year goes on.

But for the meantime, wins like this against talented teams show that the young talent onboard is starting to come into their own, and this rebuilding roster is beginning to shape as the productive, cohesive team it was envisioned to be.

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