The latest Utah Jazz defeat was frightening in more ways than one.
If not for a meaningless made free throw from Rudy Gobert with 2.5 seconds to play in the Utah Jazz’s 111-105 loss in Salt Lake City to the Phoenix Suns (64-17) on Friday night, the home squad would have lost the fourth quarter by a 36-12 margin.
Yikes.
Yes, these Jazzmen blew yet another one. This time, it was a 17-point lead that evaporated across the final 12 minutes.
Going back to Gobert’s last-second trip to the charity stripe, an incident that occurred at the time is either funny or sad — dependent upon one’s view of the Jazz’s patented collapses in primetime matchups over the years.
Startling frustration from a Utah Jazz star
Just before receiving the ball to shoot his free throw, Rudy Gobert heard a loud sound behind him and appeared to think his and others’ safety could be at risk. The three-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year quickly turned his head — with a look of legit worry — only to see the “bang” came from his disappointed teammate, Donovan Mitchell, pounding the scorer’s table with his fist:
It’s safe to say this wasn’t the three-time All-Star guard’s best night.
Mitchell went 0-for-6 from the field in the fourth quarter as the Jazz’s lead steadily slipped away. He finished with 18 points on 7-for-21 shooting from the field. His plus-minus of -25 was the second-worst of the game, behind only the -26 from Utah forward Bojan Bogdanovic.
The Jazz will look to end the regular season on a better note at 7:30 p.m. MT Sunday in a road game against the Portland Trail Blazers (27-54). Owning the tiebreaker over the Denver Nuggets (also 48-33), Utah controls its destiny in the battle for the Western Conference’s No. 5 seed.
Stay tuned to The J-Notes for more Utah Jazz news and views.