Utah
3 challenges go against Utah in final minute of loss to 76ers, but it shows progress
SALT LAKE CITY — Jordan Clarkson’s foot was in the wrong spot at the wrong time.
Philadelphia forward Paul George had frantically grabbed an offensive rebound with the shot clock winding down and turned to shoot a desperation fadeaway. In the process, he clipped Clarkson and that sent him tumbling down.
Foul.
Jazz coach Will Hardy quickly challenged the play, but after review, the call stood. That was one of three reviews in the closing minute that went Philadelphia’s way as the 76ers escaped Utah with a 114-111 victory Saturday at the Delta Center.
Was that deflating?
“Only now that you bring it up,” Hardy quipped when asked. “The challenge is there for the reasons that are obvious. They were right on both theirs and we weren’t on ours. But, yeah, I wasn’t sad till now.”
(Sorry about that, Will.)
In fact, he left the game feeling quite good about his team’s progress. Over the last 10 games, the Jazz have had a top-10 offense in the NBA and are now on a five-game run where the team has played clutch minutes (albeit, Utah is 2-3 in that stretch).
Saturday was yet another example of an improving team. The Jazz had 27 assists, had three players reach 20 or more points, and were within one possession for the entire final five minutes, save for four seconds.
All that against a team that has Joel Embiid (32 points), Tyrese Maxey (32 points and six assists) and Paul George (13 points) playing together. Those three combined for 21 points in the fourth quarter.
“I don’t think anybody should walk away from this game discouraged at all,” Hardy said. “Losing hurts. Losing is not fun. But there’s a lot of really good stuff happening on our team right now; the cohesion of the group on both sides of the ball has grown a lot in the last couple of weeks.”
One issue, though, is masking some of that progress, and that’s turnovers. The Jazz had 22 giveaways — including 15 live-ball turnovers — leading to 22 points.
“You can go look at the list — it’s everybody,” Hardy said. “We’re not doing a good enough job of seeing that shift defender. We’re dribbling into a secondary defender too many times. We also just have some moments of poor ball security. The team knows that and we’ll face that reality, and we’ll continue to work at it.”
Because, otherwise, the Jazz have been playing some good basketball. They lost at the buzzer on Thursday, lost in the final seconds on Saturday and took Cleveland down to the final minutes earlier in the week.
Moral victory? Sure. Regardless, it’s a night-and-day difference from what the Jazz were like at the beginning of the season.
“We’ve stuck together, even though it hasn’t been the best year,” said Lauri Markkanen, who led the Jazz with 23 points and hit a late, deep 3-pointer to keep some hope alive. “We didn’t close out tonight, or in Portland, or even the Cavs game, but we were right there.”
If anything, that’s been the hallmark of Hardy’s Jazz teams. The Utah front office has yet to give him a team that can truly compete. Yet, in his first two seasons, his teams exceeded expectations — even to the chagrin of some Jazz fans (and maybe some management, too) — and things are starting to trend in that direction again.
And it’s coming via veterans and youngsters.
In the last five games, Markkanen has scored over 20 points each time and Collin Sexton is averaging 22.2 points and 7.2 assists. On Saturday, Brice Sensabaugh showed more patience reading the floor, leading to 20 points and two assists; and rookie forward Cody Williams had some bright spots attacking the rim.
“They have a really talented team with some incredibly high-level players that made some big-time plays,” Hardy said. “But this is a night where I walk out feeling good about the progress of our group.”
The fact that challenges were even needed during the final minute is evidence enough of that.
The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.
Arizona State basketball is at a crossroads. After back-to-back road losses to Baylor and TCU, the Sun Devils are suddenly fighting just to stay above .500.
Now, with Utah coming to town Saturday afternoon, this isn’t just another conference game. It feels bigger than that. It feels like the moment that decides whether this season still has life or if it quietly fades away.
The Danger of Falling Below .500
All season long, Arizona State has had one strange pattern.
Every time they dropped to .500, they responded with a win. They never let things spiral.
But now they’re sitting right on the edge again.
A loss to Utah would push them below .500 for the first time all year. That might not sound dramatic, but it matters for team morale.
Teams feel that shift. Confidence changes. Urgency changes. And with only a few games left before the Big 12 Tournament, there isn’t much time to recover.
That’s why this Utah game feels different.
Utah Is Playing Better — Especially on Defense
When these two teams met a few weeks ago, Utah was struggling.
Since then, they’ve improved. They’re still built around their top scorers, who combine for around 40 points per game, but the real difference lately has been defense.
Utah has started putting together more complete defensive performances. They’re contesting shots better. They’re finishing possessions. They’re not folding as easily in the second half.
That matters because Arizona State’s biggest issue right now isn’t effort, it’s physical depth.
The Real Niche Problem: Guard-Heavy and Worn Down
Here’s something that doesn’t get talked about enough: Arizona State’s roster balance is off.
Because of injuries, especially the likely season-ending absence of Marcus Adams Jr., the Sun Devils are extremely guard-heavy right now. More than half of the available players are guards. That creates matchup issues, especially against physical teams.
We saw it against TCU. They got to the free-throw line 36 times.
They won the physical battle. Even when their best scorer struggled, they still controlled the game inside.
ASU just doesn’t have the same frontcourt depth.
With only a few true bigs available and some undersized forwards playing bigger roles than expected, the team can get worn down.
Late in games, that shows up in missed rebounds, second-chance points, and tired legs.
It’s not about hustle. It’s about bodies.
Why Saturday Truly Matters
If Arizona State beats Utah, everything changes.
Suddenly, you’re heading into Senior Night against Kansas with momentum. Win that, and you’re talking about a possible 7–11 conference finish and a much better Big 12 Tournament matchup.
From there? Anything can happen.
But if they lose Saturday, the math and the hope get much harder.
That’s why this game isn’t just about Utah.
It’s about belief. It’s about roster limitations. And it’s about whether this team has one more push left in them before the season runs out.
SALT LAKE CITY — A controversial Utah proposal to crack down on the presence of immigrants in the country illegally that had seemed stalled gained new life Friday, passing muster in new form in a relatively narrow vote.
In a 39-33 vote, the Utah House approved HB386 — amended with portions of HB88, which stalled in the House on Monday — and the revamped measure now goes to the Utah Senate for consideration.
The reworked version of HB386, originally meant just to repeal outdated immigration legislation, now also contains provisions prohibiting immigrants in the country illegally from being able to tap into in-state university tuition, certain home loan programs and certain professional licensing.
The new HB386 isn’t as far-reaching as HB88, which also would have prohibited immigrants in the country illegally from being able to access certain public benefits like food at food pantries, immunizations for communicable diseases and emergency housing.
Moreover, Rep. Trevor Lee, R-Layton and the HB88 sponsor, stressed that the new provisions in HB386 wouldn’t impact immigrants in the country legally. He touted HB88 as a means of making sure taxpayer money isn’t funneled to programming that immigrants in the country illegally can tap.
Rep. Lisa Shepherd, R-Provo, the HB386 sponsor, sounded a similar message, referencing, with chagrin, the provision allowing certain students in the country illegally to access lower in-state tuition rates at Utah’s public universities. Because of such provisions “we’re taking care of other countries’ children first, and I want to take care of Utahns first. In my campaign I ran and said Utahns first and this bill will put Utahns first,” she said.
If we stop young folks who have lived here much of their life from going to school and getting an education, it is really clear to me that we have hurt that person. It’s not clear to me at all that we have benefitted the rest of us.
–Rep. Ray Ward, R-Bountiful
The relatively narrow 39-33 vote, atypical in the GOP-dominated Utah Legislature, followed several other narrow, hotly contested procedural votes to formally amend HB386. Foes, including both Democrats and Republicans, took particular umbrage with provisions prohibiting immigrants in the country illegally from being able to pay in-state tuition and access certain scholarships.
As is, students in the country illegally who have attended high school for at least three years in Utah and meet other guidelines may pay lower in-state tuition, but if they have to pay out-of-state tuition instead, they could no longer afford to go to college.
“If we stop young folks who have lived here much of their life from going to school and getting an education, it is really clear to me that we have hurt that person. It’s not clear to me at all that we have benefitted the rest of us,” said Rep. Ray Ward, R-Bountiful.
Rep. Hoang Nguyen, D-Salt Lake City, noted her own hardscrabble upbringing as an immigrant from Vietnam and said the changes outlined in the reworked version of HB386 run counter to what she believes Utah stands for.
“I fear that what we’re doing here in Utah is we are eroding what truly makes Utah special, the Utah way. We are starting to adopt policies that are regressive and don’t take care of people. Utahns are one thing. Citizens are one thing. People is the first thing,” she said.
Rep. John Arthur, D-Cottonwood Heights, said the measure sends a negative message to the immigrant students impacted.
“If we pass this bill today, colleagues, we will be telling these young people — again, who have graduated from our high schools, these kids who have gone to at least three years of school here — that you’re no longer a Utahn,” he said.
If we are compassionate to those who come the legal way and we are compassionate to those who already live here, that does not mean that we lack compassion for others in other ways.
–Rep. Kristen Chevrier, R-Highland
Rep. Kristen Chevrier, R-Highland, said the debate underscores a “fallacy” about compassion. She backed the reworked version of HB386, saying Utah resources should be first spend on those in the country legally.
“If we are compassionate to those who come the legal way and we are compassionate to those who already live here, that does not mean that we lack compassion for others in other ways,” she said.
The original version of HB386 calls for repeal of immigration laws on the books that are outdated because other triggering requirements have not been met or they run counter to federal law.
The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.
SALT LAKE CITY (KUTV) — A man died after he was caught in an avalanche in Big Cottonwood Canyon over the weekend.
A spokesperson for the Salt Lake County Sheriff’s Office confirmed on Thursday that Kevin Williams, 57, had died.
He, along with one other person, was hospitalized in critical condition after Saturday’s avalanche in the backcountry.
MORE | Big Cottonwood Canyon Avalanche
In an interview with 2News earlier this week, one of Williams’ close friends, Nate Burbidge, described him as a loving family man.
“Kevin’s an amazing guy. He’s always serving, looking for ways that he can connect with others,” Burbidge said.
A GoFundMe was set up to help support Williams’ family.
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