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Gordon Hayward was patiently waiting for his opening and when he saw it he pounced. With about two minutes left on the clock, Hayward slashed through traffic to the rim and then, fading left to right, hit a tough layup off the glass.
The move was a strong one, so the Jazz captain flexed — arms to his side, fists pointed down toward the hardwood — as he raced back to his bench.
"I was surprised by that," Trey Lyles, a rookie forward and the Jazz's leading expert on flexing as a celebratory art form, said as he offered his critique after the game. "… He done it a little different. He done it the body builder way. It's all good. He's a little bigger than me so it works for him."
But that was the Jazz in Friday's 84-81 win over the Milwaukee Bucks — strong when they had to be, but certainly needing some work.
For a second game in a row, Utah had to grind out a victory — its fifth straight — relying on defense and some timely buckets on a night when the offense stuttered. The Jazz shot just 39 percent from the floor and just 29 percent from 3-point territory. They turned the ball over 17 times and got just nine points from their bench on 2-of-15 shooting.
"We'd rather not be in them," Hayward said of these kind of grind-it-out contests. "Hopefully we shoot the ball better … but I think we're learning and we're learning how to win."
Hayward scored eight of his 18 points in the fourth quarter and shooting guard Rodney Hood scored a game-high 23 points, handily outplaying his former Duke teammate Jabari Parker on the night.
It wasn't always pretty, but sometimes it's better to be ugly than good.
And afterward, Jazz coach Quin Snyder downplayed any thoughts of panic.
"I think we're an offensive juggernaut. We've scored over 80 two straight games," he quipped. "I can't reanalyze our offense after two games. We didn't score the ball. … We missed some shots. Some of our key guys didn't have a good night."
The long-armed Bucks did knock the Jazz out of their rhythm, particularly in the pick-and-roll. "That forces guys to make plays and we didn't make enough of them," said Snyder. Utah shot just 30 for 77 on the night, but it was the open looks his players passed up — and there were many of them — that irked Snyder the most.
The Jazz went 3 for 14 from deep in the first two periods against the Bucks and trailed by as much as 9. But Hayward and Hood sparked a 7-2 run to close out the half. Hayward hit a 3 from the left angle and then, on the next trip down, whipped the ball to an open Rudy Gobert in the paint. On the next play, Hood stole the ball and went end-to-end for a lay-in to help close the gap to 44-40 at intermission.
Bucks guard Jerryd Bayless, meanwhile, hit on his first five attempts from 3-point territory. But Bayless was a victim of the Jazz's adjustments in the second half. The guard failed to score another point as Utah clamped down defensively.
The game saw six ties and 16 lead changes and became unnecessarily close in crunch time. The Jazz turned the ball over with just under 24 seconds to go and had to play tight defense to keep a tying 3-pointer from falling at the buzzer.
Milwaukee had five scorers in double-digits led by 18 from guard Khris Middleton. Center Greg Monroe had 14 points and nine rebounds. And Parker, the second overall pick two years ago, finished with just two points on 1-of-6 shooting.
Bucks forward Miles Plumlee was ejected in the third quarter for elbowing Utah's Joe Ingles in the back of the head on a rebound attempt.
The Jazz closed out their season-long homestand with a 5-1 record and a 24-25 mark on the year. They now face three straight games on the road — at Phoenix, at Dallas and at New Orleans — leading up to the all-star break.
"Hopefully," Hayward said, "we close this thing out strong."
Twitter: @tribjazz —
Storylines
R The Jazz win despite shooting just 39 percent from the field and 29 percent from 3.
• Gordon Hayward scores eight of his 18 points in the fourth quarter.
• Rodney Hood finishes with a game-high 23 points, handily outplaying his teammate at Duke, Jabari Parker, who has two points on 1-of-6 shooting.
More coverage
• Rodney Hood bounces back from rough outing to lead Jazz. > C4
Saturday's game
Jazz at Suns • 7 p.m. ROOT