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SALT LAKE CITY — Following Wednesday’s game, Donovan Mitchell expressed his utmost confidence in every player on his team.
“We could have half the guys out and I’d still have faith in our team going out there and doing what we do because everybody is locked in,” he said.
That wasn’t blind confidence either. Mitchell had more or less just seen it.
On Wednesday morning, the Jazz already knew they were going to be without Derrick Favors, Kyle Korver and Dante Exum. But as the game grew closer, the bad news continued to come in.
First, Jae Crowder was ruled out with a right quad contusion. Then, less than an hour before tip-off, the Jazz announced Ricky Rubio would also miss the game due to right hamstring tightness.
So maybe it wasn’t a huge surprise the Jazz were up by just five points with 5:36 left against a Phoenix Suns teams with the worst record in the Western Conference.
But in the final minutes, the Jazz did what they have been doing as of late.
Utah outscored the Suns 19-3 in the final 5:02 to pull away for a 118-97 win in Phoenix on Wednesday. It was the Jazz ’s sixth straight win and their 11th in their last 12 games. Utah improved to 48-30 on the season.
“Next man up,” Mitchell said. “We have been saying it for two years now. Every game you see why. It’s more prevalent in games like this.”
Mitchell pointed out Georges Niang, who had 11 points in 26 minutes, and was part of Utah’s closing lineup that put the Suns away.
He mentioned Grayson Allen, who scored a career-high 14 points. Allen provided a key spark off the bench in the first half after the Jazz fell into a quick 15-2 hole in the game’s opening minutes. He scored 10 points in the second half and it was his corner 3-pointer that tied the game up at 33 the second quarter — the Jazz wouldn’t trail again in the contest.
Mitchell mentioned Ekpe Udoh who had six points, seven rebounds, four assists and two blocks — all in just 11 minutes.
And he mentioned those other guys, too — like Joe Ingles and Rudy Gobert — who, along with Mitchell, led the Jazz’s fourth-quarter run to close the game.
Ingles tied his career-high of 27 points on 10-of-13 shooting and had eight assists. Gobert had 17 points and 13 rebounds for his 63rd double-double on the season, breaking Karl Malone’s franchise record for points/rebounds double-doubles. Mitchell had 29 points, six assist, and five rebounds.
“Withstanding their run and making a run back,” Mitchell said of the Jazz’s closing stretch. “I think we had all the tools. Joe had it going, I’m hitting shots, Grayson out there defending and running in transition, Royce is doing his thing, George (Niang). When you have everyone on the same page, it’s really easy to make those pushes, especially late.”
But it was a run that Jazz coach Quin Snyder would have liked to see come a little earlier. By the start of the second half, the Jazz had turned the game around a dreadfully slow start but didn’t take advantage of some chances to put the game away.
“I felt like we missed an opportunity at the end of the third, the beginning of the fourth where we were getting some stops,” Snyder said. “There was a stretch where we had a turnover, we shot quick without making a pass and they were attacking us the other, and we were never really able to stretch the lead.”
Even without Devin Booker, who exited the game in the first quarter after a scary looking ankle turn, the Suns were able to put a little scare in the Jazz. At least until the last few minutes.
“Joe and Donovan hit some big shots,” Snyder said. “They were timely.”
The Jazz return home on Friday for a matchup with the Sacramento Kings.
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