DETROIT — There was just 25 seconds left to play in Saturday night’s Utah Jazz win when Donovan Mitchell slipped and nearly lost the ball as he went to the floor.
The Detroit Pistons, trailing by just three points, were scrambling and hoping for a stop. So when Mitchell lost his handle and went down, there was a moment when the Pistons thought they’d got exactly what they needed.
Mitchell didn’t see Mike Conley right behind him, or hear him calling out to flick the ball backward just a couple of feet to get out of a tough situation, but it didn’t stop Mitchell from making a timely, tough and important play.
“In NBA games there’s lots of big leads that change hands and for us to respond the way that we did was a really good thing.” — Utah Jazz coach Quin Snyder
Seated flat on the court Mitchell sent a cross-court pass to Joe Ingles in the opposite corner. Ingles drove in and passed to Gobert who was fouled and sent to the line.
“I saw what he was looking at and was like there’s no way he’s about to throw this,” Conley said. “He threw it all the way across the court and I was like, hats off to him. I don’t even know how he did that. You’ve got to be strong. That’s impressive.”
Gobert hit two clutch free throws to put the game just out of reach and the Jazz went on to win 111-105, sweeping the four-game road trip, winning a fifth consecutive game, and improving to 41-22 on the season.
“My biggest thing is, I knew where Joe was, so I knew if I got the ball I’d be able to get it there,” Mitchell said of the play. “It was just a matter of grabbing it. Mike was telling me he was right next to me — I didn’t even hear him; I just had my eyes locked in on Joe. I knew there was like 5 seconds left (on the shot clock), so I figured that if I hit him, he’d be at least able to get a shot off or do something with it.”
Sure, the Jazz would have liked to put the Pistons away before that and not have been fighting all the way down to the wire, but those are the type of moments that can often prove the mettle of a team.
It was a play that could be overlooked or even looked at as a gaff that almost lost the Jazz the game. The truth is that a player or a team with a little less composure than Mitchell and the Jazz might have panicked in the moment and ended up having to defend a turnover or fighting for a jump ball.
“Those are big plays,” Jazz head coach Quin Snyder said. “I think games sometimes tip on a loose ball, on a rebound, or someone hustling back on transition and making a play. Donovan got to the floor and fought for the ball and we were actually ready to call a timeout, but he was able to make a pretty amazing pass actually across the court to Joe.”
That late-game play was actually emblematic of how the Jazz played throughout the night. They came out hard against the Pistons, with a defensive intensity that they expect from themselves but that has been inconsistent as of late.
The Pistons, behind a career-high 30-point night from forward Christian Wood, rebounded from a 22-point deficit to tie the game, 79-79, early in the fourth quarter.
Rather than panic and lose composure on the final night of a four-game road trip, on the second half of a back-to-back set, the Jazz returned to gritty defense and downhill attacking in order to regain the upper hand.
“In NBA games there’s lots of big leads that change hands and for us to respond the way that we did was a really good thing,” Snyder said. “We can be sharper down the stretch — I think all our guys know that and that’s something that we’ll focus on and talk about — but that shouldn’t cloud the fact that we came out with great focus and intensity on the defensive end.”
In an even broader picture, the ability to regain composure and focus on the details that can pull you out of a tough spot is what the Jazz have been focusing on since dropping four straight after the All-Star break.
Four of the Jazz’s five wins during their current streak have been against losing teams, but the team has tried their best not to pay attention to where their opponent might be in the standings and instead focus their energy on correcting some of the less palatable things that sent them off track.
“Ultimately you can’t get too high or too low through it, you’ve got to stay consistent on your work ethic and how you approach every day,” Conley said. “You can’t worry about the result all the time. Right now we can’t be worried about us winning four or five in a row, it’s about the next game or tomorrow’s practice. We’ve got to lock in on the little things. That allows us to get out of a losing streak and back on track and hopefully allows us to stay on track and winning games.”
Throughout this East Coast swing, the Jazz have won games a number of different ways, with the bench contributing, the defense showing up in big ways, shooters returning to form, and Mitchell and Gobert leading the way.
On Saturday night, impressive rim-attacking performances from Mitchell and Bojan Bogdanovic, who combined for 57 points, gave the Jazz the offensive edge they needed to pair with an early defensive onslaught.
The Jazz head home to start a more difficult schedule that kicks off with the Toronto Raptors on Monday before games against the Thunder, Pelicans, Grizzlies and Lakers. The Jazz are hoping that the momentum gained on this road trip will carry through as they prepare for the final 19 games of the season.