(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert (27) pulls in a rebound as the Utah Jazz host the Phoenix Suns, NBA basketball in Salt Lake City, Wednesday Feb. 14, 2018.
As the final seconds ticked away Wednesday night, the Jazz’s Joe Ingles hugged teammates Jae Crowder and Donovan Mitchell, while Rudy Gobert waved his arms to exhort the crowd. A buzzer sounded, and confetti fell from the ceiling to celebrate the Jazz’s 11th victory in a row.
And then the officials made Phoenix in-bound the ball, with two-tenths of a second remaining.
That’s how this game went. Every time it seemingly was over, the Jazz kept having to do more work. They led for roughly 90 percent of the night, yet this was only a three-point game in the last three minutes before the Jazz secured a 107-97 win at Vivint Smart Home Arena.
How stressful was this exercise? Jazz coach Quin Snyder was willing to accept a victory, with no qualifier.
And that’s why the Jazz need the All-Star break, never mind the potential loss of momentum. Ricky Rubio’s continued absence due to injury meant another start for rookie Royce O’Neal, who responded with a career-high 19 points. That’s the good part. The downside effect was having the Jazz’s bench score a total of 19 points, counting Crowder’s 15.
My scoresheet is filled with a bunch of supposedly decisive plays by the Jazz, only to have them scratched out when the Suns repeatedly rallied. The Jazz trailed at some point in each of the second, third and fourth quarters, facing a Phoenix team coming off a 46-point loss at Golden State. And you wonder why coaches are so paranoid?
“We knew this would be a difficult game,” Snyder said.
The Jazz, finally, took some degree of control with Crowder’s drive, followed by his layup from a Mitchell assist. Even then, the Suns were not done until Mitchell made a 3-pointer off an inbounds pass, barely beating the shot clock and giving the Jazz a 105-97 lead in the final minute.
Like I’ve been saying forever, where would this team be without Royce O’Neale and Jae Crowder? In 10th place, probably. The crazy thing about this streak is how little ground the Jazz have gained, from a playoff-qualifying perspective.
The Jazz stood 10th in the Western Conference when their run started three weeks ago, and they’ll be stuck in 10th through the All-Star break. The Jazz have brought the West’s No. 6 seed into clear view, yet they remain below the playoff cut.
“That’s the West … We’ve still got to keep working,” Derrick Favors said after posting 18 points and 12 rebounds.
So the Jazz (30-28) will spend their vacation with the satisfaction of knowing they’ve done all they could to play themselves into the race, mixed with the frustration of being unable to help themselves for another week.
The Jazz’s schedule resumes Feb. 23. With a win over Portland, the Jazz can match their 12-game winning streak of February/March 2009, the fourth-longest run in franchise history.
That was a memorable, emotional phase for the franchise. The players were inspired by the legacy of owner Larry H. Miller, who died in mid-February. The Jazz were a very good home team in that era, and they exploited a friendly schedule. Eight of those 12 wins came in Salt Lake City. When the run ended, the Jazz faded to a 7-11 finish and a 48-34 record, good for only the No. 8 seed.
The Jazz’s current level of play seems more sustainable, partly because the upcoming schedule remains favorable. Seven of these 11 wins have come on the road, and the next four games are at home: vs. Portland, Dallas, Houston and Minnesota. Win those, and the Jazz would tie their record of 15 in a row, set twice during the franchise’s first NBA Finals season of 1996-97.
Even then, they would need some of the teams right ahead of them to start losing, to help them get where they belong.
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