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SALT LAKE CITY — The Jazz got caught looking ahead.
Mike Conley had just gone around a Rudy Gobert screen and buried a 3-pointer in the opening minutes of the third quarter. As the Utah Jazz walked to their bench following a Denver timeout, there were smiles and high-fives as the team celebrated the 15-point lead. it looked like the rest of the night was going to be easy.
“On some level, we just lost our composure when we were ahead,” Jazz coach Quin Snyder said.
And by the end, they weren’t ahead any longer.
Jamal Murray wasn’t ready to leave Orlando just yet. The Denver guard scored 16 of his 42 points in the fourth quarter to lead Denver to a 117-107 comeback win on Tuesday in Game 5 of their first-round series. The Jazz now lead the series 3-2.
Utah scored just 36 points the rest of the game after taking the 15-point lead with 9:43 left to go in the third.
“I thought we got concerned about getting fouled,” Snyder said. “We passed up a few shots that we've taken ... but as much as anything, we stopped being able to get out and run as well.”
With Utah’s offense sputtering for the first time all series, it allowed Murray to pull the Nuggets back into the game. Denver went on an 18-4 run between the third and fourth quarters to erase the 15-point advantage. And from there, Murray pulled them back into the series.
It was Donovan Mitchell vs. Jamal Murray Part 3. And now it’s going to be more than a trilogy.
The two high-scoring guards went back and forth in the second half. Mitchell drove in for a layup; Murray answered with a pull-up 3. Murray had a 360 layup around Rudy Gobert, Mitchell flew in for a dunk over MIchael Porter Jr.
Murray and Mitchell went blow for blow — until Murray got the upper hand late.
Mitchell finished with 30 points on 11-of-23 shooting, but he had just one field goal in the final 6:34 of the game — a banked-in 3 with 18 seconds remaining when the game was pretty much already decided. Mike Conely and Jordan Clarkson both had 17 points for the Jazz.
When Royce O’Neale picked up his fifth foul on a moving screen in the fourth quarter, the Jazz tried Joe Ingles on Murray. After an easy blow-by layup, Mitchell got the call. That meant the Jazz star had to find a way to stay in front of Murray and then keep the Jazz scoring on the other end.
“Donovan wanted the challenge; he did a good job,” Snyder said. “We've just got to collectively do a better job in those situations. Sometimes it was the guy on the bal, sometimes it was somebody coming to trap, sometimes it was the weak side, it's not on one guy.”
And that was seen in the critical run that won the game for the Nuggets.
With the score tied 101-101, Mitchell forced a Murray pass that led to a monster Rudy Gobert block. But it was Murray that got the rebound, dribbled it out, and then hit a fadeaway 20-footer.
On the next Denver possession, Utah deflected a pass but as players lunged for the ball, it ended up back in Murray’s hands and he drained a 3-pointer. Those five quick points started a 9-0 run that helped the Nuggets pull away late.
“We all got a will to win. It's as simple as that,” Murray said. “That can carry you and that can take you places.”
Mitchell said guarding Murray late wasn’t the reason his offense dried up, saying there’s nothing he feels he can’t do.
“They were at a level that we just didn't reach,” Mitchell said. “They played desperate, and I got to give them credit because some teams rolled over. They didn't. They kept trying — especially being down 15.”
Desperation coupled with some complacency led to a disaster finish. Royce O’Neale somehow lost Murray on an inbounds play late in the fourth, Mitchell had three turnovers in the second half and Rudy Gobert, in his worst game of the series, was often slow to rotate onto Denver’s drives. That helped the Jazz get outscored by 14 in the final 12 minutes.
“We were in a great position up 15, I think, and we lost our composure a little bit, and they made some plays to get back in the game, and then we were in for a dogfight,” Snyder said.
Both in the game and now the series.
