Donovan to Rudy: Late alley-oop sends Jazz to victory in Game 4

SALT LAKE CITY — The entire Dallas bench either jumped up in amusement or bent over laughing after Rudy Gobert air-balled a free throw with 4:19 left.

They weren't laughing at the end, though.

Call it karma. Dallas center Dwight Powell stepped to the line with 19 seconds left in the game with a chance to make it a 3-point Mavericks lead, but he missed both and set up a storybook pass in the process.

Donovan Mitchell passed to Rudy Gobert.

Mitchell drew two players to him on a drive and then lobbed it up for Gobert, who slammed it home with 11 seconds left to give Utah a 100-99 win and to send the series back to Dallas tied 2-2.

"He read that great and threw a great pass," Quin Snyder said of the final play.

"Dwight Powell was up so he made the right play. I just had to finish it," said Gobert, who had 17 points and 15 rebounds.

To Mitchell, it was simple; he knew the Mavericks were going to force him to his left, so he hesitated on his drive to see what Powell would do — stay with Gobert, who was setting a screen, or come up to meet him. Powell did the latter and that left Gobert unmarked on his roll to the rim. All Mitchell had to do was throw the pass up.

It was so simple but so cathartic.

Yes, Mitchell and Gobert had heard all the rumors and reports over their apparent in-fighting, and they knew of the narrative that grew over the last weeks of the season that claimed Mitchell preferred not to pass to his All-Star teammate.

It was poetic then that it was those two that hooked up for the biggest play of the season.

"I think it's funny," said Mitchell, who had 23 points and seven assits. "It wasn't even the first pass; there was a bunch of them."

But after pondering for a few moments on it, Mitchell admitted there was a special significance to the closing play.

"It feels good," Mitchell said. "You hear it; I don't think he and I sit here and think there's nothing, but you hear it. And it's good to see that and do it on a stage like that."

The play breathed new life into the series and into the team.

Less than 30 seconds earlier, the Jazz looked like their season was soon to be on the brink. Luka Doncic, who scored 30 points in his return from a left-calf strain, hit a step-back 3-pointer to give Dallas a 4-point play.

The Jazz had lost a double-digit lead, Gobert was getting heckled at the line as he went 3 of 8 in the closing minutes, and Utah was coming undone down the stretch, once again. Utah was on the verge of being down 3-1 and the season being all but over. Did anyone think the Jazz could come back from that type of deficit in a playoff series with how they've closed out games this year? No.

But then came the plot twist.

Mitchell put back his own miss while getting fouled for a 3-point play to cut it to one, and then the Jazz sent Powell to the free-throw line, where a Vivint Arena crowd met him, ready to make a lasting mark on the game.

The arena rose to a decibel level that hadn't been heard all year; and after laughing at Gobert for the better part of the quarter, karma caught up with the Mavericks. Both of the free throws fell off the rim, and the Jazz suddenly had a chance to steal back the game.

Without taking a timeout, Mitchell dribbled up the court for a play that would end with two supposedly at-odd stars celebrating together.

"It hasn't been the greatest regular season as far as crunch time for me, but I'm not going to sit there and let that affect how we continue to go throughout the rest of the playoffs," Mitchell said.

He was phenomenal in the closing moments, leading the Jazz to an improbable comeback. Utah became just the fifth team in the last 10 postseasons to win after trailing by 4 or more points in the final 40 seconds. Teams were just 4-701 in that span entering Saturday's contest.

That gave Gobert and the Jazz the last laugh in Game 4.

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