"Poisoning Their Fans to Keep Believing in Them": Fans Troll Utah Jazz After Smoke Machine Malfunction Takes Over Brutal Loss to OKC Thunder

The Utah Jazz are having a bad season thus far, and on Sunday, they ran into the buzzsaw that is the OKC Thunder. As if to add to their woes, a technical glitch led to a literally foggy scenario for Jazz fans to deal with.

Midway through the second quarter, one of the smoke machines inside Delta Center started uncontrollably spewing fumes. A viral clip shows the smoke machine getting out of hand as Chet Holmgren threw down an alley oop dunk.

This incident led to some hilarious reactions from fans, who couldn't help but reference the dismal state of the Jazz's performance this season.

"There poisoning their fans to keep believing in them," one fan tweeted.

cenaheelnation🪖

@IDKADH_

There poisoning their fans to keep believing in them

₿RNDN

@brandonlharris

Fans weren't buying enough concession food

Huggy

@DeyLuvHuggy

Utah so bad they activated a smoke screen 💀

❄️❄️❄️

@vert_welman

Chet was selected as the next Pope

The MWEA TALISMAN🌙

@Talisman_James

OKC smoking them

Aman Hailu

@AmanHailu9

They probably did that to make sure that there fans didn’t see them get destroyed

NBA fans can hardly be blamed for thinking that the smoke was meant as a diversion from the Jazz's performance on the hardcourt. At that point, the Thunder were already up big, and they went on to cruise to a 131-101 victory.

Even without reigning MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, OKC came out with guns blazing as Holmgren and Chet Williams scored 25 points apiece on a combined 23-for-34 shooting from the field. Four players finished with double-digit scoring off the bench, led by Aaron Wiggins' 19 points on 5-for-6 shooting from beyond the arc.

Utah allowed OKC to shoot 58.0% from the field and 50.0% from deep while making just 33.3% of their own outside shots. Kyle Filipowski had a double-double performance for the Jazz, who were missing the services of Lauri Markkanen.

Utah Jazz broadcasters appear to spell Andrei Kirilenko's name wrong

Apparently, there might have been another mishap during this Jazz-Thunder game, this time involving the spelling of an icon formerly nicknamed AK-47.

A fan going by the X handle otgfhixon posted an image of the local Jazz broadcast showing the name "Andrey Kirilenko." This fan bemoaned the "misspelling," as the former All-Star forward's had been more commonly presented as "Andrei."

Meanwhile, another fan claimed that Kirilenko had officially changed the spelling of his name, leading otgfhixon to apologize.

Whatever the case may be, this season's iteration of the Jazz is certainly a far cry from the Jazz team that Kirilenko played for in the 2000s. During the Russian star's 10-year stint in Utah, the team finished above .500 eight times. That iteration of the Jazz went on six trips to the playoffs, including a Western Conference Finals appearance in 2007.