The Utah Jazz were smoked on Sunday night — by multiple definitions of that word.
First, the arena’s smoke machine above the Oklahoma City Thunder’s basket went off during live action in the second quarter: slowly at first, before entering full celebration mode for a few minutes.
Arena staff haven’t been able to determine what caused the smoke machine to malfunction, but the system was unplugged to allow the game to resume.
The second half’s action was also delayed by a total clock malfunction. The game was paused for 12 minutes while arena staffers tried to restart the shot and game clocks; eventually, it was decided play would resume with arena PA announcer Marque Denmon calling out game-clock updates at regular intervals and shot-clock countdowns when the buzzer drew close.
It meant that the players on the court didn’t have much knowledge of time and score during the third quarter, before the clock issues were fixed.
“I ain’t been in the league that long — but I never had that in middle school, high school, or college," Jazz guard Keyonte George said. “It’s obviously tough. You want to know how much time is on the clock.”
(Bethany Baker | AP) The Utah Jazz shot clock malfunctions during the second half of an NBA basketball game between the Utah Jazz and the Oklahoma City Thunder, Sunday, Dec. 7, 2025, in Salt Lake City.
After the game, Jazz staff said the Tissot clock malfunction occurred because the system wasn’t receiving data — which meant that the usual remedy of floor shot clocks also would not have worked. After attempting a few reboots, Jazz personnel had to replace the whole controller on the scorer’s table, at which point the clock system began working again. In the meantime, a crew member manually kept time and reported updates in Denmon’s ear at the public announcing seat.
The Jazz said the issues appeared unrelated.
Finally, there was the Thunder’s performance. With Jazz star Lauri Markkanen sitting due to illness, the Jazz were never competitive in the game against a Thunder team also missing Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Lu Dort, Isaiah Hartenstein, and others. The Thunder, on fire, made 11 threes in the first quarter to put the Jazz in a 43-15 deficit in the first quarter. Utah never got close to making it a contest, eventually losing 131-101.
“They shot the ball great, but we didn’t execute on too many of those plays,” Jazz coach Will Hardy said. “You know, it just sets a bad tone for the rest of the game when you have to play down 20.”
