Jazz come back from down 23, but potential game-winning shot goes long

SALT LAKE CITY — Lauri Markkanen had a better ending in mind than him falling backward and having to quickly throw an outlet pass that left him out of the deciding play on Sunday in Brooklyn.

Even getting to a deciding play was a pretty decent shock.

After all, with 6:25 left in the game, Utah trailed the Brooklyn Nets by 20 points. By that point, the game seemed well in hand and no one would have blamed fans for checking out early.

The Jazz didn't, though.

Flash forward a few minutes and Kelly Olynyk put up an 18-foot jumper that would have won the game for the visiting Jazz. Alas, Olynyk's shot went long, and the Nets breathed a sigh of relief as they held on for a 111-110 win after coughing up the huge late lead.

Utah used a 15-0 run late in the fourth quarter to get back into the game, and only allowed the Nets to score 8 points in the final 5:50 of the game.

"We just got some stops, started to run, and got some easy ones," Olynyk said. "We just played with a little bit of energy."

As for the Nets, they tried to just bleed the clock. They had gone up by as many as 23 points and their lead had hovered around 20 for much of the second half. There, obviously, wasn't a lot of urgency on their part.

"I feel like they kind of slowed it down and were trying to get to the end of the game," Olynyk said. "We kind of took advantage of that and just kept pressing, kept making stuff happen, kept attacking, and stayed in attack mode."

And by the time the final minute rolled around, the game was still in doubt.

The Jazz got big plays from Talen Horton-Tucker, who scored 15 of his 32 points in the fourth quarter, and Kris Dunn. They got big shots from Markkanen and Ochai Agbaji.

"I just thought we did a better job with our spacing," Jazz coach Will Hardy said. "We tried to keep the five out of the play and play a little bit more four out. That allowed our guards to get downhill."

Agbaji's 3-pointer with 11.6 seconds left pulled the Jazz within 2 points.

That's when both teams went to the foul game. Spencer Dinwiddie went 1-of-2 from the free-throw line to keep the game at one possession. But Horton-Tucker was quickly fouled on Utah's ensuing possession as the Nets were reluctant to allow a potential game-tying shot. Horton-Tucker made both of his and the Jazz then fouled Seth Curry with 5.8 seconds left; he missed both.

Suddenly, any bucket could win the game for Utah. The problem was they didn't have another timeout, so there weren't a lot of options.

Markkanen had to reach back to grab the rebound, and that caused him to lose his balance.

"I didn't want to get called for a travel, and I didn't know if someone was coming to reach for the ball, so I didn't want to put it on the floor, either," said Markkanen, who had 23 points and nine rebounds after missing the last two games. "I just wanted to get a shot up and trying to get a look for the win a

Added Hardy: "When he threw it to Kelly, we ended up playing four on five. There was really nobody — I had just watched it again — there's nobody really for Kelly to throw the ball to in that situation with Lauri so far behind the play."

Olynyk dribbled into a contested fadeaway jumper that went long. The loss dropped the Jazz to 36-42 on the season and may have just ended their play-in chances. Utah, which has lost six of its last seven games, will likely need to win their remaining four contests and then hope for some favorable results around the league.

"I thought the guys dug in, stuck with it when they very easily could have folded at different times in the game," Hardy said. "So really proud of them."

Friendly fire: Walker Kessler left Sunday's game in the third quarter after taking an elbow to face by Horton-Tucker as they both went for a rebound. Kessler fell to the ground and looked shaken up before he headed to the locker room. He was examined for a concussion and didn't return.

"He's alive, I just saw him. He'll get reevaluated tomorrow after getting hit in the face or the side of the head with an elbow," Hardy said. "Kind of a weird play on a rebound but the docs looked at him tonight and didn't want him to come back in the game so he'll be reevaluated tomorrow."

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