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SALT LAKE CITY — Maybe the Jazz should have anticipated the uncharacteristic end to the game Friday — because things were weird before the tip off ever happened. During pregame warmups a bat — yes, the often creepy flying mammal — was soaring around Vivint Arena.
Donovan Mitchell’s warmup was a little delayed as the Jazz Bear and arena personnel attempted to catch the intruder with Bear eventually succeeding.
“That was scary,” Mitchell said.”I was not cool with that at all. I’m glad the Bear got him because I would not have finished my warm up, I would have been in the locker room.”
Scary would be a good way of describing the end of the game for the Jazz.
The Jazz entered the fourth quarter with a 21-point lead. With 16 seconds left that was down to one — and a wide-open Minnesota 3-pointer was flying through the air.
Utah, though, dodged a bullet.
Luol Deng’s corner triple banged off the rim and Joe Ingles secured the rebound and went on to hit two freebies. And after Anthony Tolliver’s 3-point look with 4 seconds to go was deflected, the Jazz could finally breathe a sigh of relief. Epic collapse avoided – but only just.
Utah held on for a 106-102 victory over the Timberwolves Friday at Vivint Arena.
“We just weren’t smart as far as a lot of things,” Jazz coach Quin Snyder said. “You can point to a lot of things where we didn’t play like a smarter team and we were fortunate to get the win.”
Minnesota started the fourth quarter on a 15-2 run and outscored Utah 33-16 in the final period, turning an easy victory into a major fight at the end.
With 2:55 remaining, Jerryd Bayless connected on a 3-pointer that cut the Utah lead to just two points, 99-97. Minnesota had all the momentum and had plenty of time to pull off the massive comeback. But Utah found a way to get to the finish line.
Rudy Gobert had a putback dunk, Kyle Korver hit a big 3-pointer and the Jazz defense finally forced some stops. With the most important coming in the game’s final seconds when Gobert got a hand on Tolliver’s 3-point attempt.
“We let them get their confidence back,” Gobert said. “At this point, we should know, it’s not the first time. We should know at this point. Hopefully, we can learn from that one.”
It’s not the first time the Jazz have struggled in the second half recently. Utah gave up 39 points in the fourth in a win against Cleveland and allowed Portland to come back in the second half in a loss to the Blazers.
“I just feel like once we have a team down like we had them down, we have to step on their throats,” Jae Crowder said. “We have to build that mentality as a team. Once you have a team like that, especially at home, you have to put them away.”
Mitchell had his first career regular-season double-double with 24 points and 11 assists. He was zipping the ball around with confidence — including a baseball-like pass that ended to Georges Niang in the corner for a 3-pointer. The Jazz were moving the ball, they were having fun.
Then the fourth quarter came.
For a moment there we probably let the foot off the gas,” Kyle Korver said. “Our intensity wasn’t quite what it had been in the third quarter. I thought we just didn’t play very smart.”
But they still got the win. And it’s better to learn from wins than losses.
“The ultimate result in this league is winning and losing,” Crowder said. “You learn from your wins and you learn from your loss. We have to learn from this win and be better.”
Gobert finished with 18 points and 16 rebounds. Korver had 16 points off the bench. Utah improved to 28-22.
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