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SALT LAKE CITY — Phew.
That was the collective feeling in the Delta Center after the Utah Jazz's 154-148 overtime win over the lowly Detroit Pistons Wednesday.
Detroit may have snapped its NBA-record 28-game losing streak before the team arrived in Salt Lake City. But there was still little doubt about the Pistons' place in the NBA hierarchy. This was, after all, the team that had won just three games this season coming into the game.
And, yet, they were in the lead for most of the night.
That feeling of relief first came when Jordan Clarkson buried a deep 3-pointer with 30.8 seconds left in regulation to give the Jazz a late 3-point lead.
Old friend and teammate Bojan Bogdanovic had other things in mind, though. The man Utah fans once lovingly referred to as Bogey answered Clarkson's 3-pointer 17 seconds later. That was a familiar sight for Clarkson; he's just used to being on the same side.
"Just knowing him, he lives for those big moments," Clarkson said of Bogdanovic. "He's had so many here — listing them all would be crazy. You know at those points in the game he's gonna answer for sure."
Bogdanovic's big shot seemed like it would be a moot point. On Utah's final possession of regulation, Lauri Markkanen set a screen, popped out, and hit a wide-open 3 with 4.4 seconds left.
Surely, that would be the game-winner, right? Not on this night.
That was just enough time for Alec Burks — yes, another former Jazz player — to make magic happen. Burks sprinted down the court and cashed in a deep off-balance triple as time expired to send the game into overtime.
For those counting, that was four lead-changing or tying 3-point shots in the final 31 seconds of the game. Things got crazy in a hurry. The extra five minutes were a little less stressful for the home team, at least.
"It was fun," said Collin Sexton, who had 25 points and five assists, of those final moments. "That's what we do. We love to compete. I feel like tonight was one of those nights we had a good time."
Especially after the overtime period.
The Jazz team that had gone 8-3 leading up to the game finally showed up in overtime. Utah jumped out to a 7-point lead in overtime to make things a little more comfortable in the closing moments of overtime.
There was no doubt, though, that the Jazz played with fire — and almost got burned.
Utah didn't take its first lead of the game until the third quarter.
An 8-0 run behind a brilliant sequence by Simone Fontecchio finally put the Jazz on top at 95-92. That didn't restore order; not by a long shot. Detroit led by as many as 8 points in the fourth quarter, but the Jazz were able to rally to get the surprisingly hard-fought win.
The Jazz tied for the most points in franchise history, and they almost needed every last one of them as Bogdanovic tried to will the Pistons to victory. Bogdanovic had 36 points, seven rebounds and five assists against his former team, and was 8-for-15 from 3-point range as he nearly pulled off one epic revenge game.
The 15 3-point attempts were what stood out to Jazz coach Will Hardy.
"Bojan's a heck of a player," Hardy said. "I think two games ago against Miami, Duncan Robinson, who played 32 minutes, only got off five. I think we had a massive slippage in our communication and recognition of personnel."
But, in the end, they got away with it.
Clarkson scored 16 of his 36 points in the fourth quarter to lead that rally. Markkanen finished with 31 points and seven rebounds for the Jazz.
It was Utah's third straight win, and the Jazz improved to 16-19 on the season.
