Utah Jazz head coach Will Hardy revealed a big halftime adjustment they made in their 124-117 win over the Oklahoma City Thunder.
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00:00 Chris is really valuable to our team.
00:04 I've talked a lot about halftime as an opportunity for us to look at what's happening in the game and make some adjustments.
00:11 We felt like going into the second half we wanted to try to match Chris's minutes with Shea.
00:17 There's obviously hard choices that have to be made every night because that cuts certain people's minutes,
00:23 that changes your rotation, that changes some lineups,
00:26 but we just felt like it gave us the best chance to hang around in the game was if we could limit Shea's dribble penetration.
00:35 We knew that it was going to take more than one person,
00:39 but we do understand that Chris on the ball initially does the best job on our team.
00:46 He's a terrific defender. He has amazing instincts.
00:49 He has a great mix of physicality and agility.
00:55 I think when we talk about good athletes in the NBA,
00:59 I think one thing that's very misunderstood is there is a difference between a good offensive athlete and a good defensive athlete.
01:08 I would not describe Chris as a great offensive athlete.
01:11 He doesn't play above the rim. He's not the fastest guy you've ever seen.
01:17 He's not a bad athlete, but there's nothing about Chris on the offensive end that really jumps out.
01:21 But his ability to move defensively, the athleticism that he has with his back to the basket,
01:26 sliding open in his hips, getting low, being strong, is really, really impressive.
01:34 He's a big reason why we won the game.