Jazz 88, Magic 86
ORLANDO — A penchant for playing from behind is becoming habit for the Jazz.
The first couple of games it was kind of cute. But now it's getting downright dangerous.
Utah on Wednesday night rallied yet again to win, this time overcoming a 9-point deficit starting the fourth quarter to beat the Orlando Magic 88-86. The win was the fifth in a row for the 12-3 Jazz, who have had to dig their way out of final-quarter holes for the past three of those victories.
"We keep hanging in there and not letting this snowball on us," said Utah guard John Stockton. "We are making plays here and there, and before you know it . . . we suddenly have a chance to win it."
Utah trailed by four to start the fourth quarter against Detroit on Sunday, but that's when Karl Malone scored 12 of his 24 points to lead the Jazz to a 94-79 victory over the Pistons.
At New Jersey on Tuesday, the Jazz were down by seven with seven minutes and 49 seconds remaining. But Malone posted 13 of his 21 in the fourth, and Utah won 98-92.
This time, Orlando was still up by nine with 8:30 to go. The Magic held their lead until the final 1:41, when Malone, who scored nine of his team-high 27 points as the Jazz chipped away in the fourth, hit two free throws to tie the game at 84.
Twenty-nine seconds after his freebie, Malone hit a 20-foot jumper that put the Jazz up 86-84. Danny Manning followed a pair of free throws with 39.1 seconds remaining, giving the Jazz a four-point cushion.
After John Amaechi's two free throws trimmed the Utah lead to two at 88-86, Bryon Russell missed an inside shot that could have sealed Utah's victory.
Tracy McGrady, who scored a game-high 28 despite an infected cut on his left hand, pulled down the rebound of Russell's miss, and headed upcourt with about eight seconds to go.
"You have to have a little bit of luck in that situation," Sloan said. "But you know where they're going. You don't have to have a book out there to tell you where they're going to go. He (McGrady) went right to the basket."
Before he did, though, McGrady first passed to rookie Mike Miller, who considered shooting a three for the win, but thought better of it when Jazz guard John Starks flew past him with arms flailing.
"My main objective was to not give them a three," Starks said. "A three could beat us."
A two could tie them, but the Magic didn't get that, either.
When Miller dropped the ball back down low to McGrady, Russell and Stockton tied him up, McGrady lost the ball and the clock expired.
Magic coach Doc Rivers protested that "McGrady got fouled," but nothing was called and the Jazz left with their third win in three games into a five-game road trip that ends with a back-to-back set at Miami on Friday night and at Charlotte on Saturday night.
"That's about as close as you can get and still come away alive," Sloan said.
Almost too close for comfort, actually.
"That's not something we can continuously get away with, because some teams are going to be ready for it," said center Olden Polynice, who scored all of his season-high 10 points in the opening quarter.
Still, the Jazz did get away with this one. And they did it the same way as in the previous two — by practicing patience.
"You still have to play four quarters of basketball," said Malone, who is now 49 points shy of passing Wilt Chamberlain for second place on the NBA's all-time scoring list. "We did get down. . . . In that fourth quarter, guys executed and got the ball where we wanted to get it. And we made them pay.
"So it's not really how you start a ballgame," Malone added. "We've been around long enough to know that you just have to take what they give you . . .. We execute down the stretch. We do the things we're capable of doing. We don't push the panic button. We're a veteran team, and we just play the game.
"You can't get all bent out of shape if things don't go your way. For the most part, we did that."
The Jazz maintained their cool and played the final few minutes with a sense of serenity that younger teams don't always display.
"I don't know if it's calmer — we're just older," Malone said. "We don't get too excited about a whole h--- of a lot of things. We just play our game."
And win their fair share, too.
"We got a big W," said Russell, who had a season-high five steals, not counting the game itself. "That's all that counts, right? We got a W."
They did, the hard way. Again.
E-MAIL: tbuckley@desnews.com