For once, they looked like they really wanted to win a close one. For once, they actually did.
The Jazz beat Charlotte 104-100 Tuesday night at the Delta Center, dispelling, perhaps once and for all, the notion they are incapable of coming through when the going gets rough.
"It was really nice to come back," said Jazz star Karl Malone, who finished with a game-high 22 points despite missing his first six shots of the third quarter, including two layups and two short jumpers. "That's definitely one that we earned."
Utah, which has lost three games in overtime and three more by four or fewer points this season, had to rebound from an 11-point second-half deficit to snap a two-game losing streak and improve to 7-11. To do so, the Jazz used a 13-0 run at the start of the fourth quarter that brought them from 10 down to three up at 89-86.
When John Crotty drove for a layup with a John Stockton pass with five minutes and 31 seconds remaining, Utah's advantage stood at five.
When David Wesley canned a 3-pointer with 1:53 to go, though, Charlotte was back up by three, and the Jazz again were facing the sort of late-game collapse that has defined their struggles so far this season.
"We've been in that position about four times, five times," Crotty said, "and (each time) lost by a bucket."
Or so.
But not this time.
With 1:38 left, Russian rookie Andrei Kirilenko tipped in a Scott Padgett miss for the last of his career-high 19 points. A few seconds later Stockton stole Wesley's bad pass and Malone converted a fastbreak layup, putting the Jazz ahead 101-100.
After Wesley missed a long jumper and Crotty missed a layup, Malone missed an 18-footer — his 14th miss among 24 shots from the field. The Jazz retained possession, however, prompting the Hornets to call a timeout with 27 seconds left on the game clock and 24 on Utah's shot clock.
Rather than send the Jazz to the line, Charlotte (7-10, and losers of three straight) allowed them to run a final play. The result: a 3-pointer by Crotty with 3.2 seconds to go, sealing what is just Utah's third win in eight games.
"We needed one close game down the stretch to win," Crotty said.
And now the Jazz have it.
To get it, they used a late-game lineup featuring the odd combination of point guards Stockton and Crotty in the backcourt, Kirilenko at small forward, either Padgett or starting rookie center Jarron Collins at power forward, and Malone in the middle.
"Our intensity just wasn't what I thought it should have been, and we went with a smaller lineup and tried to play some guys that want to pass the ball and try to at least rebound to give yourself a chance to win," said Jazz coach Jerry Sloan, who got little out of 7-foot-2 Greg Ostertag (four points, three rebounds) and little more from 6-10 fellow center John Amaechi (six points, three boards).
"I don't have any problem playing midgets," Sloan added, "if that's what it takes to try to win ballgames."
Another key to getting it done, Sloan suggested, was simply wanting it. He especially saw that from the five he played most extensively in the fourth quarter — Crotty, Stockton, Kirilenko, Padgett and Malone.
"Some people," Sloan said, "I think have cashed it in on me a little bit.
But, he added, "There's always some guys that are going to stay in there and fight — and I'll keep looking for them. . . . I just thought our guys had a little more determination to try to win tonight than what we've had in the past."
Malone agreed — to a degree.
"I think every guy that gets out there wants to win. I don't think there's one guy in this locker room that (would) rather lose," he said. "So, I think we had just five guys that was clicking down the stretch. Five guys on the same page. Let's say that: For once, we had five guys on the same page."
For once.
MISC.: The Jazz played their second straight game without usual starting forward Donyell Marshall, out "day-to-day" with a slight right-side groin strain. Kirilenko again started in his place . . . The Hornets were without 18-point scorer Jamal Mashburn, who is on the injured list with an abdominal strain, and without George Lynch, who has been out due to foot surgery performed shortly after he was acquired from Philadelphia as part of October's three-team trade that sent Derrick Coleman to the 76ers . . . Attendance was 17,115, marking the fifth time in the Jazz's last six home games that their Delta Center audience has numbered less than 18,000. Capacity is 19,911, and the Jazz still have not had a sellout this season.
E-mail: tbuckley@desnews.com