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SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Jazz will always have the end of the third quarter.
That's when a small-ball spark of energy ran through the Jazz and gave their fans hope of a comeback. By the end, though, the Jazz left the Vivint Arena court to the same thing that followed them into halftime: a chorus of boos.
Outside of a few minutes during a late stretch in the third quarter, the Jazz no-showed Thursday in what might be one of the more pivotal games of this era of the franchise. Dallas walked into Salt Lake City and beat the Jazz 126-118 in Game 3 to take a 2-1 lead in the series.
The game featured all the stuff you'd come to expect by now: bad perimeter defense, allowing wide-open 3s and too much iso-heavy offense.
And some you wouldn't: Royce O'Neale taking a shot at Jalen Brunson that forced him to the locker room (that was the closest thing to defense the Jazz played on Brunson, who had 31 points), and Eric Paschall making his debut in the series as a small-ball five.
Oh, and the game ended with the Jazz talking about moral victories. Yep, after a loss in the middle of a playoff series, Utah was searching for silver linings — that was a surprise.
"They hit a few tough shots that were contested," Rudy Gobert said. "I feel like it could have went either way. The thing I like is we got back from 17 down to 1."
That much is true.
After a less-than-spirited first half that had the regular zealous Vivint Arena playoff crowd mostly sitting on their hands, the Jazz did mount a comeback. It took Gobert leaving the court and Paschall coming in, but Utah finally found some energy. The floor opened up and allowed Donovan Mitchell to tear through the lane for 18 points in the quarter.
By the end of the third quarter, the Mavericks' lead was down to 6; and with 6:46 remaining, they had cut it to 1.
Utah tried to go back to the small-ball unit again in the fourth quarter, but it looked like the shock of it had already worn off. This time, the Mavericks were ready — and are now one win away from taking full control of the series.
"I like what we did in the second half. I like how we came out defensively and the offense takes care of itself when we play with that intensity defensively," Gobert said. "Now the question is for us: Can we have that intensity for 48 minutes?"
Really? Intensity? In the playoffs? Danuel House Jr. was seen on the Utah bench emotionally yelling at his teammates. Multiple players had to calm him down; maybe they should have taken his lead.
When asked why the team was struggling with intensity in the first home game of the playoffs, there was a long silence as MItchell looked for an answer.
At long last, he found one.
"They came out and hit shots, and that's a deflating feeling taking the ball out of the net every possession," Mitchell said.
Sure, Dallas made some shots. Maxi Kleber, who finished 4 of 5 from deep for 17 points, hit a corner 3-pointer almost immediately after checking in, which caused a collective groan throughout the arena; and Brunson continued his domination of Utah.
But the Mavericks were 10 of 23 in the first quarter. If that's all it takes to zap the Jazz's energy, it's no surprise the team was heavily booed by what usually is a very loyal fan base.
It took until midway through the third quarter to find any energy; it was provided by Paschall and the small lineup that hadn't been seen before in the playoffs.
"We turned our energy as a group. We kind of dictated the game," Mitchell said.
But the energy was fleeting — just like Utah's Game 1 win almost a week ago. And now the Jazz's season is close to the brink.
Mitchell said the team would look at film and figure stuff out, Quin Snyder said he was proud with how the team fought and clawed back, and Gobert thought there were plenty of positives to take out of the second half.
In the end, though, the Jazz looked like a team without answers, and so they tried to find silver linings instead.
