Thunder beat Jazz despite late-game challenge blunder

When the officials blew their whistle with 12.3 seconds left in the fourth quarter of a tight game between the Utah Jazz and Oklahoma City Thunder Thursday night, signaling that the ball had gone out of bounds, there was confusion on the faces of the officials.

Whose ball was it?

Collin Sexton had driven into the paint, drawn two defenders and passed to his left to a cutting Walker Kessler.

It was a great play. Unfortunately, Chet Holmgren bailed out on Sexton once he saw what was developing and blocked Kessler’s shot.

Once the ball was loose, it landed in the middle of a cacophony of hands and bodies, and by the time it popped out and sailed out of bounds, the officials weren’t sure who touched it last.

Due to the confusion, they called a jump ball.

Jazz coach Will Hardy looked down the bench at George Rodman, the member of his staff in charge of determining whether a challenge is worthwhile.

Rodman believed it was off the Thunder, but Hardy saw that the Jazz only had one timeout left and then looked at Kessler.

“George had decent confidence in it, but I’ve seen George way more adamant with me to challenge than that play,” Hardy said.

“In the moment with Walker on the court, I just looked at Walk and said, ‘Win the jump.’ I had faith that he would win it.”

But to most everyone’s surprise, in the final seconds before play resumed, Thunder coach Mark Daigneault signaled for a timeout and a challenge. 

“Their own guys were saying, ‘No, no, no don’t challenge it,’” Kessler said. “I think they knew it was not their ball.”

Apparently, not everyone knew because Daigneault was willing to take the risk. Although there was a small chance that on replay the officials still wouldn’t be able to determine who last touched the ball, which would result in an unsuccessful challenge and the Thunder losing a timeout, any successful determination would mean that the Thunder would keep their timeout.

But if the determination was that it was in fact Jazz ball, the Jazz would have possession and a chance to cut the lead to just a single point. And that’s exactly what happened.

“After review, the replay-center official overturns the call on the floor from a jump ball to Utah possession,” official James Williams said.

“Because the call on the floor was changed, the challenge by Oklahoma City is successful. They maintain their timeout and they still have a challenge remaining. Utah ball, 12.3 on the game clock.”

On the ensuing possession, had the Jazz been able to hit a 3-pointer, this could be a completely different story — one about a massive blunder of a challenge that changed the tide of a game for the Thunder when it seemed like they had the game in hand.

But after the challenge, OKC was very lucky that 39.3% 3-point shooter Simone Fontecchio missed a wide open look.

“If you had shown me a snapshot of the look that Simo got I would have signed up for that,” Hardy said.

“(The Thunder) kind of blew up the initial part of the action. Collin threw the ball in quick to Jordan (Clarkson), but Jordan had great recognition of the situation and Simo sprang into space and he’s a good shooter and he got a good look.”

But Fontecchio missed.

Clarkson got the rebound and missed a mid-range bank shot, but by that time it was over. Holmgren hit a free throw on the other end and then time expired.

The Utah Jazz’s six-game win streak was ended with a 134-129 loss to the Thunder.