Kragthorpe: Jazz’s rally against Spurs keeps unlikely winning streak alive

Any other night, during any other slice of this crazy Jazz season, San Antonio guard Manu Ginobili’s wildly flipped shot from his hip might have connected, rather than hitting the rim and bouncing away Monday night.

The Jazz’s improbable winning streak almost ended in the most unimaginable way. Instead, the Jazz got exactly what they deserved, a 101-99 victory that left the home crowd joyfully drained at Vivint Smart Home Arena.

Wow. Something’s happening here. The Jazz have won 10 straight games, and this one resembled the way the whole thing started almost three weeks ago — with a late rally that forced overtime in a win at Detroit.

In so many ways, the Jazz’s run seemed likely to end Monday. They trailed by 13 points in the last 10 minutes and looked worn out, coming off Sunday night’s victory at Portland.

They played through it, somehow. “We’ve talked about trying to win different ways, in different situations, different circumstances,” Jazz coach Quin Snyder said afterward.

The latest episode took huge fourth-quarter effort from a lot of sources. Donovan Mitchell persevered through a 9-of-28 shooting night, scoring 13 of his 25 points in the final period. Derrick Favors posted 20 points, playing so well that Rudy Gobert at one point told Snyder to keep Favors on the court in his place. And in the last sequence, rookie Royce O’Neale did what the coaching staff has reminded him hundreds of times to do — not fall for pump-fakes.

That’s how O’Neale managed to disrupt both Ginobili and Kyle Anderson by switching on a Spurs possession that became horribly scrambled, ending with Ginobili’s desperate attempt. As O’Neale said, “I knew I had to stay down.”

That’s how the Jazz stayed up, in the end.

So continues the franchise’s longest winning streak since the Jazz of Deron Williams/Carlos Boozer won 12 straight games in 2009.

As welcomed and as unlikely as the latest streak is, coming from a team that stood 19-28 when it started, it is only natural to wonder what this might become. With five home games ahead (Wednesday vs. Phoenix and four more after the All-Star break), the Jazz seriously could challenge the franchise record of 15 wins in a row.

A loss to the Spurs would have been equal parts forgivable and frustrating, with the Jazz looking tired and missing guard Ricky Rubio. They almost couldn’t exploit the Spurs’ absence of LaMarcus Aldridge, Rudy Gay and Kawhi Leonard.

The Jazz nearly took a 15-point lead in the second quarter, but Joe Ingles’ 3-point attempt missed and San Antonio rallied to within 54-48 at halftime. The third quarter started with an Ingles lob that Mitchell couldn’t turn into a dunk, and the Jazz just seemed to be off. And then things got worse, before they got much, much better.

“You have to catch some breaks,” Snyder said.

As I’ve always said, nobody takes winning tougher than Snyder. “If you get too high or too low, you are usually reacting to something that isn’t entirely true. … Often times, it’s not the whole story,” Snyder said before the game.

Maybe so, but the Jazz just keep winning. They’ve beaten Detroit, Toronto, Golden State, Phoenix, San Antonio, New Orleans, Memphis, Charlotte, Portland and San Antonio again.

They’ve sure altered the outlook around here. Fans have gone from wondering how high the Jazz would pick in the draft lottery to guessing what playoff seed they might obtain in the Western Conference, being two games out of sixth place.

That might be getting ahead of the story, but that’s OK. The Jazz are rolling, and only the All-Star break seems capable of stopping them.