Trailing by as many as 15 points, the Home Spurs launched a counterattack in the second half and eventually defeated the Jazz 104-102, continuing to retain hope of impacting the playoffs.
Statistics
Donovan Mitchell had 24 points, seven rebounds and six assists, Rudy Gobert had 13 points, 16 rebounds and five blocks, Jordan Clarkson had 17 points and eight rebounds, and Hassan Whiteside had 13 points and 12 rebounds.
Dejote Murray 27 points, 9 rebounds, 4 assists and 5 steals, Jacob Pelter 15 points, 11 rebounds and 2 blocks, Zach Collins came off the bench for 15 points and Kelden Johnson had 13 points and 10 rebounds.
Game review
Bojan Bogdanovic is sidelined with injury and the recently sluggish veteran Conley has made a series of mistakes, but Mitchell is hot and scored eight consecutive points to lead the Jazz to an 18-9 start. In the bench rotation that followed, Zach Collins played well, not only hitting two consecutive three-pointers, but also frequently making basket kills, and the Spurs once chased the score to 27. Conley made a foul with one assist and one three-pointer, and the Jazz again took a six-point lead, but Murray hit a three-point whistle from a distance, and the Spurs only trailed by three points at 30-33 to end the first quarter.
In the second quarter, the Spurs opened 11-6 under the leadership of Murray and Peltel, and rebounded 41-39. Mitchell immediately hit a three-point shot to sound a new offensive horn, and under his leadership, the Jazz played a wave of 18-4, with Mitchell alone contributing 10 points to take a double-digit lead. More than two minutes before halftime, the two sides attacked and defended each other, Murray again went beyond the far whistle three-point shot missed, and the Jazz entered the half-time break 59-50.
After the start of the second half, the two sides suddenly began to play iron, the third quarter went on for 8 minutes, the Spurs only scored 8 points, and the Jazz were even more outrageous, after Gobert's first offensive round dunk, the next 11 consecutive shots missed, and frequent errors, in more than 7 minutes did not score a point, and finally rely on Whiteside's basket to break the scoring drought, and at this time the score has been chased to 58-61.
Whiteside's scoring reactivated the Jazz as they hit a 13-6 run in the final four minutes of the third quarter to re-establish the lead and head into the final quarter with a 74-64 run.
At the beginning of the fourth quarter, Clarkson grabbed consecutive points, and veteran Gay also received Conley's assists and hit a three-pointer on the counter-attack, and the Jazz pulled the score to 81-66. Popovich hurried to time the correction, and when he returned, Pelter kept blocking and throwing shots, and Gobert was also convicted of malicious fouls for raising his leg to kick Richardson's key parts in the attack, and the latter hit both free throws, so the point difference returned to single digits.
Seeing the hope of a comeback, the Spurs continued to narrow the point gap, and Murray made two free throws before completing a back-up jumper to stop the Jazz 76-82. But the timeout failed to halt the Spurs' counter-offensive, with Peltel hitting two free throws and Lonnie Walker hitting three-pointers to narrow the gap to just two points. At the crucial moment, Clarkson countered and scored 2 points, but the Jazz offense did not form a continuation, and after Murray hit a 5:28 second before the final game, the Spurs finally chased the score to 84 draws!
In the final 5 and a half minutes, the two sides fought a decisive battle, and until the final minute of the game, the Spurs still led by only one point at 96-95. House missed a three-pointer and came back to Pelter midway down the ball to score a three-point lead at 98-95. The Jazz made a key attack, and the opportunity came in O'Neal's hands, but his three-point shot still failed to hit, but Gobert grabbed the rebound and Mitchell hit the shot, 97-98!
After the timeout, the Jazz adopted foul tactics, Richardson made two free throws but Johnson grabbed the rebound, the Jazz had to immediately foul, Johnson hit both free throws, and the point difference was 4 points. Although Mitchell quickly grabbed two points after that, due to time constraints, it still failed to achieve a reversal.
Both sides started
Jazz: Conley, Mitchell, House, O'Neill, Gobert
Spurs: Murray, Vassell, Richardson, Johnson, Pelter