Jazz Get First Overtime Win In Four Years Against Rockets

SALT LAKE CITY – The Utah Jazz narrowly avoided an all too familiar fate, beating the Houston Rockets 132-127 in overtime despite blowing an 18 point second-half lead.

The Jazz have lost 10 games this season in which they’ve led by 10 points or more, but a trio of Mike Conley threes in the fourth quarter and overtime kept the Jazz from their 11th such loss.

Donovan Mitchell had 37 points and 10 assists in the win, while Rudy Gobert added a season-high 27 points to go along with 17 rebounds.

The @utahjazz blew an 18 point lead, but survived the @HoustonRockets 132-127 for their third straight win. #TakeNote https://t.co/wMhkDkXGpT

— KSL Sports (@kslsports) March 3, 2022

Another Blown Lead

If the Jazz thought that wins over the Dallas Mavericks and Phoenix Suns had cured their ills from early in the season, they were sorely mistaken.

After gutsy two way wins over two of the better teams in the Western Conference, the Jazz struggled to close out the Rockets just as they had struggled to close out the Los Angeles Lakers in their final game before the All-Star break, and the Rockets on January 19, and the Detroit Pistons on January 10, and the Washington Wizards on December 18, and the…

Well, you get the picture.

Seemingly no matter how many times the Jazz discuss playing with more focus for a full 48 minutes, the team doesn’t seem to make it easy on themselves in games that should end in blowouts.

.@mconley11 was CLUTCH in the 4th quarter and overtime.#TakeNote https://t.co/ok2Nk5jEjo

— KSL Sports (@kslsports) March 3, 2022

After all, the Rockets had lost 14 of their last 15 games, including their last 10 in a row, and have owned the fourth-worst offense and league-worst offense during the stretch.

But, over the final six minutes of the fourth quarter, the Jazz watched their 106-92 lead quickly wash away thanks to a 25-11 close to the game from the Rockets.

For those watching, the collapse was a familiar song.

The Jazz went away from their pass-heavy offense over the game’s final six minutes, leading to tough isolation looks that were well contested.

The team went just 3-9 from the floor, including 0-4 from the jump shot happy Mitchell, while both Conley and Gobert committed key turnovers.

On the other end, the Rockets caught fire and the Jazz couldn’t find ways to get stops.

The Jazz are really struggling with a team that is going five out in a game they led by 18.

Interesting.

— Ben Anderson (@BensHoops) March 3, 2022

Houston connected on a remarkable 10-11 shots down the stretch including 4-5 from the three-point line to erase the Jazz lead with 30 seconds left to play.

Conley hit the first of three big threes with eight seconds left to play in the game, but the Jazz failed to foul the Rockets on the final possession, giving Christian Wood an open three to send the game to overtime at the buzzer.

“That was a breakdown,” Quin Snyder admitted of the non-foul. “That’s something we talked about at the time out.”

Gobert said he and Danuel House Jr. both tried to foul the Rockets on the final possession, but no whistle was blown.

“The plan was to foul, and we did,” Gobert said, “they just didn’t call it.”

🤫 pic.twitter.com/50wrhd6zqi

— Houston Rockets (@HoustonRockets) March 3, 2022

Regardless of the officials, House Jr. had an opportunity to wrap up Kevin Porter Jr. to send the guard to the free-throw line where he’d struggled, having knocked down just 2-7 freebies in regulation.

Ultimately, the Jazz gave themselves enough breathing room to survive the Rockets, but it was a tough reminder of how much room to grow remains.

Jazz Snap OT Curse

Though there was little cause for celebration after once again blowing a significant lead to a far less talented team, the Jazz did shake one monkey off their back.

Prior to their overtime win over the Rockets, the Jazz hadn’t won a game in extra time since a 98-95 win over the Detroit Pistons on January 24, 2018. The Jazz lost nine straight games over a four-year stretch that ended in extra time.

After the win, Quin Snyder noted the value of finding a way to get the win.

“This was a really good game for us because it’s a game we need to absorb,” the coach said. “There’s not a lot of magic to what happened, but there’s things we know are going to happen to us and we need to be able to handle them.”

Quin Snyder on the @UtahJazz OT win against the Rockets.

"This was a really good game for us because its a game we need to absorb.

There's not a lot of magic to what happened, but t here's things we know are going to happen to us and we need to be able to handle them."

— Ben Anderson (@BensHoops) March 3, 2022

The Jazz had been outscored by a total of 53 in 11 overtime periods including two games that went to double-overtime.

Wednesday night’s win marked the Jazz’s first overtime game of the season, and first since falling to the Los Angeles Lakers on April 17, 2021.

Fresh For The Playoffs

With now just 21 games left before the postseason, the goal for the Jazz will be to ensure they’re playing their best basketball, while also maintaining optimum health.

Over each of the last two seasons, the Jazz have entered the playoffs at less than 100 percent with a wrist injury sidelining Bojan Bogdanovic in the bubble, and ankle and hamstring issues limiting Mitchell and Conley.

After a miserable January, the Jazz are as healthy as they’ve been in months and must find a way to maintain that for the remainder of the year.

Beyond health, Snyder wants his team to be as fresh as possible heading into the postseason, hoping his team isn’t worn out come April.

“There are different schools of thought on all that,” Snyder said. “I’ve heard at times, you need to count guys’ minutes up to build their conditioning so that they can play more in the playoffs. I don’t think you take guys down so that they can play up because they’re rested. But there are other ways for guys to be fresh.”

Throughout January and the first week of February Snyder was regularly playing a 10 man rotation, and sometimes more depending on how often Eric Paschall and Udoka Azubuike saw the floor.

Against Houston, that number remained at 10, with five players getting at least 10 minutes off the bench in regulation.

Jordan Clarkson led the Jazz reserves with 25 minutes, Danuel House Jr. played 16, Hassan Whiteside played 14 minutes, Rudy Gay played 12, and Trent Forrest played 10.

But in order to stay fresh, avoiding long, close games will be key late in the season, and the Jazz struggled to put Houston away on Wednesday.

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