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Oklahoma City • On Friday night, after losing to the Oklahoma City Thunder in Salt Lake City, it was clear the Utah Jazz were hurting. They felt frustration after letting a game slip away in the final minutes. It was a feeling they weren't keen on experiencing again soon.
Well, they are experiencing that feeling again. Except, this feeling may be even worse.
Sunday night's 104-98 defeat to OKC at Chesapeake Energy Arena almost invented new ways to lose a game. The Jazz lost a lead of 16 points in the second half, regained the advantage down the stretch and built another seven-point lead. They then lost that lead in the final minute. They had many chances to close the Thunder out, and weren't able to get it done.
For these reasons, and because beating OKC on the road would've been so huge, Sunday may have been one of Utah's most difficult losses of the season.
"It's just so frustrating, because we played so well the whole game," Jazz shooting guard Rodney Hood said. "They went on their run, which they're going to do, because they're a great team, but then we withstood them. We played so well throughout the game, and to be just one or two plays away ... you kind of get down on yourself."
Even though Sunday night saw an overtime, Utah symbolically lost this one in regulation by not putting the game out of reach for the Thunder when it had the chance. The extra five minutes just seemed like a mere formality, as the Jazz failed to score until Gordon Hayward converted a driving layup in the final seconds.
But those final segments of regulation will haunt the Jazz as they fly to San Antonio for Monday night's matchup at the Spurs.
Up 96-94 with 20 seconds remaining, Utah needed a defensive stop, and forced two misses at the rim. The Jazz couldn't rebound either one of those misses, which led to Kevin Durant dunking one home for a 96-96 tie.
With a chance to win the game, Hayward took a pick-and-roll, got into the lane, and saw Hood open for what would've been the game-winning shot attempt. But Hood never got that attempt, because Hayward fired the pass over his head and into the crowd. The game went into overtime when Durant missed the final shot with a second remaining.
"I saw Rodney open, I knew he was open in the corner," Hayward said. "I tried to skip it to him and I just threw an errant pass. I tried to get it through Durant and Steven Adams, they have long arms. I probably should've just tried to go 1-4 low against KD [one-on-one against Durant] and maybe have gotten a better shot that way."
For the Jazz, Sunday's game was certainly defined by their third loss in four games. But it could also be noted for their lineup change at the outset, starting Alec Burks at point guard, replacing incumbent Raul Neto.
It worked well enough that Utah was the better team for much of the game. Hood turned in his best offensive performance in weeks, scoring a team-high 23 points, with 15 of those coming in the first half. Burks was difficult to handle for most of the night driving to the rim, and he finished with 21 points in his second starting assignment of the season. Hayward scored 22 points and grabbed four rebounds.
But in the end, Oklahoma City has two of the top five players in the NBA, and they were too much for the Jazz to deal with. Durant scored a game-high 31 points, with 29 of those coming after halftime. Point guard Russell Westbrook scored 25 points, grabbed 11 rebounds and handed out five assists.
"This certainly hurts," Utah head coach Quin Snyder said. "Heartbreak is pretty severe, but it hurts. You can look at it a lot of ways. We were really, really good. We got really tired. It really came down to if we could've gotten a couple of defensive rebounds at the end of the game."
Utah drops to 10-12 on the season, with the Spurs awaiting on Monday night. The Thunder are heading in the opposite direction, having won their fifth straight.
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Storylines
R Utah loses its third out of four games. The Jazz have also dropped five of seven and are 2-4 without Rudy Gobert.
• The Jazz led by 16 points and trailed by eight points. There were seven ties and five lead changes. In consecutive games, Utah has lost to the Thunder by a combined 10 points.
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More coverage
• Utah's Gordon Hayward is big on playing defense. > B6