This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Auburn Hills, Mich. • The comeback had a little bit of everything that has the basketball world so bullish on the Utah Jazz this season.
There was four straight defensive stops in crunch time, including a block by Rudy Gobert. There was the hot hand of guard Alec Burks off the bench. And there was Gordon Hayward, taking things over and finishing high off the glass to give the Jazz a one-point lead over the Detroit Pistons with 23 seconds left on opening night.
There was a little bit of everything, that is, except the win.
The Jazz could not manage to hold onto their late lead and couldn't make enough shots to come back again Wednesday night, falling to the Pistons 92-87 at the Palace of Auburn Hills.
"I thought we played well enough to win," Jazz coach Quin Snyder said. "There are going to be a lot of games that at the end come down to a few plays. We had our shots."
After Hayward's go-ahead bucket, Pistons point guard Reggie Jackson put Detroit back on top with 17 seconds left on the clock. From there, Burks missed an open look that would have given Utah a one-point lead. And Jazz shooting guard Rodney Hood had his arm hit by Detroit's Kentavious Caldwell-Pope as he released a 3-pointer to tie the game, but no foul was called.
"I've been a part of them plays a lot," said Hood, who had 12 points but went 0-for-7 from 3-point territory on the night. "It could go either way. He contested the shot. They won the game. … I felt contact, but it's up to the referee to make that call. I guess, you know, they decided to go the opposite way."
Derrick Favors was a bright spot for the Jazz in a losing effort. The power forward had looked out of sync during his final two preseason tuneups, but Favors put it all together when it started to count. The sixth-year forward scored a game-high 26 points and hauled in six rebounds.
"I just took my time," Favors said. "I was patient in the post. I was patient when they passed me the ball, and I just made plays."
But even as Favors thrived and the Jazz shot 46 percent from the floor, they couldn't hold onto a lead.
Detroit center Andre Drummond scored 18 points and grabbed 10 rebounds as the Pistons improved to 2-0. Detroit out-rebounded the Jazz 43-38, attempting 13 more foul shots on the night and hitting five more 3s.
Utah trailed by nine points, its biggest deficit of the night, early in the fourth quarter. But after Hayward split a pair of free throws with 2:38 on the clock, the Detroit lead sat at 5.
That's when the Jazz — the top defense in the NBA after the All-Star break last season — started to lock things down.
They forced a shot-clock violation and a turnover off a bad pass.
Burks, meanwhile, scored back-to-back buckets to cut the deficit to one. The shooting guard finished with 18 points off the bench.
On the next possession, Gobert blocked Pistons' forward Marcus Morris and Hayward gave the Jazz their first lead of the quarter.
Then things fell apart.
It took the Pistons point guard Jackson, who finished the night with a team-high 19 points, six seconds to get to the rim for the bucket that put Detroit ahead for good.
"We can't do nothing but learn from this," Favors said.
Down one, Burks missed an open look that would have put the Jazz back on top and Hood missed a contested 3-point shot to tie it.
"We had a couple of big stops to get right there," Snyder said. "We just couldn't get one at the end."
Twitter: @tribjazz —
Storylines
R Detroit's Reggie Jackson scores with 16 seconds left and the Jazz miss their last three shots.
• The Pistons make 25 of 34 from the free throw line.
• Utah looks for its first win of the season on Friday night at Philadelphia.