When the Jazz scored 38 points in the third period Friday night at Vivint Smart Home Arena, they seemed to break the game open, and apparently thought they’d also broken the Minnesota Timberwolves’ spirits.
Apparently not.
When Utah started the fourth by shooting 1 for 11, and Minnesota started the quarter on a 7-0 run, suddenly it was a game again. The Wolves ultimately got back within two points and, with less than 20 seconds left, had two cracks at 3-pointers to take the lead, and another with just seconds remaining to tie it.
Rudy Gobert got a piece of Anthony Tolliver’s shot on that final attempt, and Donovan Mitchell converted a free throw to preserve the closer-than-it-should-have-been 106-102 victory.
The win was the Jazz’s eighth in nine games, and improved the team to 28-22 on the season, but nobody seemed particularly enthused about it afterward.
“You’re up 23, you’ve got to lock in even more. You know that they’re looking for life — if you punch them one more time, they’re gonna give up,” Gobert said. “We let them get that confidence back. I think at this point we should know — it happens to us; it’s not the first time. So we have to respond better. Hopefully we can learn from that.”
Mitchell wound up leading the Jazz with 24 points, 11 assists, and seven rebounds, but his shooting touch abandoned him late, and he wound up just 7 for 24. Gobert, meanwhile, made 8 of 12 shots en route to 18 points, 16 rebounds and four blocks — plus several key plays in the final minutes.
They were necessary, considering the Wolves outscored the Jazz 33-16 in the fourth period.
The rally was led by star center Karl-Anthony Towns, who played just six first-half minutes due to foul trouble, who picked up his fourth foul halfway through the third quarter, and who still dominated down the stretch, finishing with 33 points, 10 rebounds, four assists and three blocks.
Utah’s players conceded that were it not for their own miscues, it would never have gotten close.
“For a minute there, we probably let our foot off the gas. You know, our intensity wasn’t quite what it had been in the third quarter,” said Kyle Korver, who finished with 16 points and five rebounds. “I thought we just didn’t play very smart. We took a lot of quick shots. I think guys were trying to win the game, but we weren’t trying to do it as a unit. So a lot of things learned.”
As Gobert mentioned, the Jazz’s third-quarter blitz expanded their lead to as many as 23 points, and they entered the fourth quarter up 21 and feeling confident.
Too confident, apparently.
The offense devolved into 3-point attempts early in the shot clock, and Utah wound up shooting just 5 for 27 overall in the fourth. Meanwhile, the defense suddenly was not quite as intense, and the Wolves made 14 of 22 shots. And so, before the Jazz knew it, their lead was down to 14, then eight, then four, then two.
“We just relaxed a little bit. As a team, we just relaxed, and those guys kept coming. They didn’t lay down at all. They had a lot of fight in ’em,” admitted Jae Crowder. “… Once we have a team down, we gotta step on their throats. We gotta build that mentality as a team. Once you have a team [down] like that, especially at home, you gotta put ’em away.”
It took a lot more effort than anticipated, but in the end, Utah managed to do it.
Gobert, in particular, was instrumental. Andrew Wiggins tried a wraparound pass near the hoop, but Gobert saw it coming, stuck his arm out and earned the steal. Then, on the game’s key play, with the Jazz up 3, Gobert anticipated a deep attempt coming from Tolliver — who was 2 for 3 from beyond the arc at that point — and maneuvered his way around the screen to get close enough to get some fingers on it and cause it to come up short.
Coach Quin Snyder, in particular, was less than thrilled with the way the Jazz played the fourth, and conceded the final result was a bit fortuitous.
“We lost focus. We just weren’t smart as far as — just a lot of things; you could point to a lot of things,” he said. “We didn’t play like a smart team, and we were fortunate to win the game.”
Utah will have an immediate opportunity to redeem itself for its sloppy finish, as the teams will have a rematch on Sunday in Minneapolis.
“We’ll play ’em again in a couple of days,” Korver said, “and we’ll have to be better.”
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