LOS ANGELES — It’s hard to sum up what happened Wednesday night better than Utah Jazz head coach Will Hardy.

“In the second half, it seemed like everyone in the gym knew Dalton Knecht was going to take the next shot, except for a few people,” Hardy said. “The problem was that these few people were on our team.”

The Los Angeles Lakers rookie, taken 17th overall in the 2024 draft, went on a rampage for a career-high 37 points to lead the Lakers in a 124-118 win over the Jazz. Knecht connected on nine 3-pointers, tying the NBA record for 3-pointers made by a rookie in a single game.

By the time Knecht had made four 3-pointers – hitting two of the first four with Collin Sexton’s hand right in front of his face – the Jazz should have learned their lesson to stay close to him. He was a talented shooter, who came into the league known for his ability to score from 3-point range, and was clearly having a good night.

But his next two attempts were uncontested. The closest defender was Jazz rookie Cody Williams. First, operating in zone defense, Williams leaves too much distance between himself and Knecht. Next time down the field, in man coverage (Knecht has now made five triples), Knecht puts Williams on the changeup and once again, the rookie doesn’t get close enough to Knecht.

“Awareness of what is happening in the game, the ability to recognize and resolve problems as a team are things we will have to continue to work on,” Hardy said. “Systems, both offensive and defensive, usually have rules because it helps keep things in order on both sides of the ball. But you have to have a license to play and recognize what’s going on around you, and at times say, “I don’t care about the rules, this guy’s done four games in a row.” »

Those who watched the Jazz closely last season and this season will recognize this trend. Keegan Murray’s career-high 47 points against the Jazz, Donte DiVinvenzo’s nine 3-pointers and 33 points and Fred VanVleet’s 10 3-pointers come to mind quite quickly. And in those cases, Hardy’s feeling is almost exactly the same: the team needs to start problem-solving as a group and be willing to break the rules of the scheme when there’s someone who obviously has the warm hand.

The problem is that these things take time and the number of young players on the Jazz roster continues to grow. Part of a young player’s development is learning to recognize times when he should just stay in front of a player, no matter what the principles of a zone tell him he’s supposed to do.

And it’s definitely not just a Cody Williams problem. Frankly, Lauri Markkanen was nowhere near Knecht’s match early on when he was supposed to be and that allowed Knecht to get into the rhythm. Then, by the time Williams made several mistakes, it was too late for anyone to do anything. A good shooter, after seeing the ball go in so many times, will make shots even if he is guarded all the time. But that’s exactly the problem the Jazz faced. They needed to recognize the personnel on the ground and quell the problem before it became a problem.

There were certainly times when Hardy could have called a timeout or changed matchups and lineups. But his philosophy is that young players won’t learn if they’re knocked out of the game every time they make a mistake.

“So there are times where you kind of roll the dice, like ‘okay, I want these guys to feel this moment and have some recognition, and we communicate in a game, and can we settle the problem on the fly?’ ” Hardy said. “The roll of the dice is that we couldn’t solve the problem on the fly tonight, but that’s where we are, that’s what we’re doing, and so I can take a chance. part of the responsibility for what happened.

And of course, there are a lot of nights where there’s scouting and Jazz players see someone hit one or two and solve the defensive problems before they snowball. These don’t stand out and no one remembers these moments as vividly. But everyone will definitely remember the night Dalton Knecht dropped 37 on the Jazz. Hopefully the Jazz players remember this and learn from this mistake.