MIAMI — The Utah Jazz knew their game against the Miami Heat Monday night would be a big test. Having beaten only four teams with winning records so far this season, a strong showing against one of the Eastern Conference’s top teams would be a positive step in their overall progress — win or lose. Unfortunately, it turned to be the latter as the Heat beat the Jazz 107-104 to break Utah’s five-game win streak.
As it turned out, Utah played pretty evenly for the first 3½ quarters before the Miami pushed out to a 95-85 lead with just over six minutes remaining in the fourth period. While the Jazz were able to draw within four points at 99-95 with less than three minutes to go, they weren’t able to make the run necessary in the end to snare the victory.
Utah trailed 103-100 with 10.2 seconds to go. Miami’s Duncan Robinson made two free throws with 8.9 seconds remaining to make the score 105-100. A Rudy Gobert putback slam out of a timeout put the score at 105-102, before the Heat’s Jimmy Butler canned two more free throws to increase the lead to 107-102. Gobert scored a meaningless basket at the end before time expired to register the eventual final count.
Utah forward Joe Ingles led all scorers with 27 points, with teammate Gobert adding 18 points and 19 rebounds. Miami forward Butler scored 20 points for the Heat, with teammate Bam Adebayo adding 18 points and grabbing a dozen boards.
Jazz head coach Quin Snyder said his team played hard but fatigue may have prevented them from making the plays they needed to pull out the win late in the fourth quarter.
“I thought we got tired and we had some really good looks. They trapped us a couple of possessions early. Maybe we didn’t handle it as well as we could have,” he said after the game.
Snyder said despite how well the Jazz played against a tough Miami squad, his team has to do more to be able to play at the level they’re capable of.
“We want to set the bar high, so we need to play better. I say better, (but) I think we have started to play better. We’re a team that’s improving but that that’s not enough,” he said. “I don’t think any of our guys are satisfied with that and that’s what gives you a chance to get better. I know (Miami) is a really, really good team (playing) at home and we did a lot of things that you need to do to win, but we’ve got to do some more.”
Utah guard Donovan Mitchell (13 points, 7 assists) said the Jazz didn’t make enough hustle plays in the late going or score when they needed to.
“It’s not like we played bad. We played really well but we had little breakdowns that just can’t happen, and then on top of that we didn’t make shots at the end,” he said. “We got looks we wanted, we did what we wanted, it’s just shots didn’t fall and they made some.”
Next up for the Jazz will be the Portland Trailblazers at Vivint Arena on Dec. 26. Game time is scheduled for tipoff at 8:30 p.m.