Oklahoma City • As the Oklahoma City Thunder roared into a near-unthinkable rally in the third quarter, it was impossible to ignore what was missing for the Utah Jazz.
At the 9:23 mark of the third quarter, when Rudy Gobert picked up his fourth foul, the game had seemed well in hand: The Jazz led by 21, and were well on their way to closing out a listless Thunder team.
But then came the fourth foul for Derrick Favors, and that’s when it started to unravel.
After a whirlwind of a second half in which the Jazz — the second-ranked defense of the regular season — were torched by Russell Westbrook and Paul George for 79 points, the Jazz were left scraping for answers. An easy one was that Gobert only played 12 minutes and Favors only played 10, both saddled with fouls just as it appeared Utah was ready to coast. The result was a 107-99 Game 5 loss that was a gut punch to a Utah team that was primed to reach the Western Conference semifinals for the second straight season.
But the players who were on the floor refused to accept that was the only reason for the comeback.
“It’s different without the big fella back there,” Mitchell said of playing without Gobert. “But even so, it’s hard to put all the pressure on him.”
Gobert has arguably been the defining player of the series, keeping Westbrook from the rim throughout the first round. The typical layups and dunks which Westbrook feasts upon have been cut off to a large degree, giving the Jazz a 3-1 series lead before Wednesday.
But when Gobert got whistled for his fourth — a call that fans decried as a ghost foul on Carmelo Anthony — some of that opened up again. Even more of Utah’s rim protection was taken away when Favors was defending George, forcing the Jazz to put in Ekpe Udoh.
From that point on, the Jazz were outscored 52-28. Gobert subbed back in late in the third to quell the rally, but picked up his fifth foul with 3:46 left.
It was telling that the Jazz outscored the Thunder by seven points with Gobert on the floor. But they weren’t making excuses.
“We haven’t kinda not had one of them on the court for a long time really, but we’ve got to adjust to that,” Joe Ingles said. “They were without [Steven] Adams for a couple games, and tonight we were without our guys.”
Follow @kylegoon