Jazz collapse in fourth quarter, lose to Pelicans

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SALT LAKE CITY — Kyle Korver gave his team a warning. But it wasn’t enough.

The message: “We are playing with fire.”

The Jazz had led by double-digits most of the night, they had gotten what they wanted offensively for much of the night and they hadn’t yet been hurt by some consistent defensive mistakes. And yet, the Jazz hadn't blown the game open. They left the Pelicans some hope — and that's all they needed.

“They got hot, we missed a couple of shots, the game turned around,” Korver said.

And it turned around in a hurry.

With 8:10 remaining in the game, the Jazz had a 14-point lead against a Pelicans team that had no plans on using their best player down the stretch. The game was well in hand — until, well, it wasn’t.

Julius Randle scored 10 of his 30 points in the final eight minutes of the game, leading a 22-2 run by New Orleans as they stunned the Jazz, 115-112, Monday at Vivint Arena.

“You can go through a dry spell, which is what that was,” Jazz coach Quin Snyder said of the game-changing run. “It was obviously at an inopportune time, but that’s when your defense needs to carry you and we didn’t have that happen.”

The Jazz allowed the Pelicans to score 26 points over the last eight minutes.

“We were really close on a lot of things,” Korver said. “But our closeouts were one step too short. We’re in the pick-and-roll and we are just one step off their body. And a lot of little things add up.”

And on Monday, they added up to a loss. The Jazz fell to 36-27 with the defeat and had their four-game winning streak snapped.

Even after the big New Orleans run, Utah still had time to salvage the game.

The Jazz have had a flair for the dramatic over the last week and, for a brief moment, it appeared they would once again be able to pull off a late surge for a win.

With under two minutes remaining and trailing by six, Rudy Gobert delivered a vicious block leading to a transition layup from Donovan Mitchell. Gobert then tipped in a Mitchell miss before Mitchell drove in for another layup. In just over a minute, the Jazz had gone on a 7-0 run to pull back ahead 112-111.

But Utah wouldn’t score again.

After an Elfrid Payton layup with 24 seconds left put the Pelicans up again, Mitchell had a shot to win the game, but his forced midrange jumper wasn’t true.

Utah had one last chance to get up a last-second 3-pointer after two Pelican free throws, but the Jazz couldn’t get the ball inbounds, finishing off the collapse.

“It’s the NBA; any team can lose to any team on any given night,” said Gobert, who finished with 19 points and 19 rebounds. “The most important thing is how you react to that.”

The Jazz will get a chance to react against the same team. Utah plays the Pelicans again on Wednesday, this time in New Orleans. The Jazz might want to try and figure out a different plan to guard Jrue Holiday.

“He’s a guy I watch a lot of film on,” Mitchell said of Holiday. “I’ll probably rewatch this one a bunch of times, just watching him.”

Mitchell had 19 points and nine assists while Korver and Jae Crowder both finished with 20 points off the bench.

The Jazz players said they didn’t get complacent with the large lead, they just didn’t have the same type of energy that they have had recently in wins over the Nuggets and the Bucks.

“We just kept making certain mistakes and they started capitalizing on them,” Mitchell said.

The Jazz played with fire — and they got burned.