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SALT LAKE CITY — Golden State was coming. A Kevin Durant jumper had cut an 11-point Utah lead to just two with over four minutes left. Durant had found his rhythm, Steph Curry had already been cooking all game and the Warriors had plenty of time to complete the comeback. A comeback, that at the moment, almost seemed inevitable.
“They are winners, they hate to lose,” Rudy Gobert said. “You are never going to put them away.”
But on Wednesday at Vivint Arena, that Golden State comeback didn't get completed. The Jazz held the Warriors to just five points over the final four minutes and walked away with a 108-103 win over the defending champions.
“We know what we can do when we do it,” Gobert said. “We know we can be the best defensive team in the league.”
For large portions of the game on Wednesday, that’s what the Jazz looked like. And none were more critical than the final stretch. Utah forced Steph Curry to miss two 3-pointers, Gobert got a block on Draymond Green and the Jazz didn’t allow the Warriors to score in the final minute after Durant cut the Jazz lead to 106-103 with a 3-pointer.
“Obviously, it’s no secret that you don’t want to give those guys open looks and open jump shots,” Jazz coach Quin Snyder said. “I thought our urgency, Rudy getting out to Steph in the corner later … We had a couple of situations where guys were alert, were aware and helped each other. You have to have that urgency.”
On the Warriors final meaningful possession, Durant attacked the rim but was stopped by Gobert. That forced the ball out of Durant’s hands and eventually into an open look by Andre Iguodala for a game-tying 3-pointer. Sure, the Jazz didn’t want to give up an open shot, but when Durant, Curry and Klay Thompson are all on the floor, they’ll live with Iguodala taking the critical shot. And it worked out. He missed.
On Wednesday morning, Snyder talked about his team’s formula for winning. It wasn’t anything Jazz fans hadn’t heard before.
“Our formula is: be elite defensively and try to win with our defense,” Snyder said.
The Jazz held the Warriors, the best offensive team in the league entering the game, to 40 percent from the field and to a 99 offensive rating. That’s elite.
And the man behind that defense was no surprise.
Gobert finished with 17 points, 15 rebounds and four blocks, but those numbers don’t begin to show his impact on the game. As Golden State made its late surge, it was Gobert that came up with play after play. And he made those types all game on Wednesday. He was forced to close out on shooters and also protect the rim, and he did with impressive efficiency.
But he wasn’t the only Jazz player to make big defensive plays.
Donovan Mitchell had a dreadful night shooting the ball. The young Jazz star was 5-for-26 for 15 points, but it was a defensive play that seemed to spark the Jazz in the third quarter. Mitchell lost Klay Thompson in the corner and when Thompson received a pass it looked like he had a wide open 3. Then Mitchell happened. The second-year guard soared high and blocked Thompson’s shot, tumbling into the second row in the process.
That awoke the crowd and soon the Jazz were giving those fans plenty more reasons to cheer. Joe Ingles, Jae Crowder and Kyle Korver took turns electrifying the home crowd with long-range bucket after long-range bucket. Ingles hit four 3-pointers on the night, Crowder hit five and Korver made four.
“We’ve been really focused on our defense and we feel like, at some point, guys are going to make some shots to go with that,” Snyder said.
That third quarter was an answer to Steph Curry’s fun in the first half.
Curry got the Warriors going in the first half with 21 points on four made 3-pointers. He started the second quarter by running around Ricky Rubio and pulling up for a 3. He stared it down as it splashed into the net and then turned his head to the left and admired his teammates shimmying at him in celebration, It was that kind of half for Curry.
But the fun didn’t last into the second. At least not for the Warriors.
