Ingles’ 3s, Mitchell slam turn back Rockets’ rally
HOUSTON — The Jazz had a four-point lead in the fourth quarter Wednesday night when Donovan Mitchell missed a jumper and sailed above three Rockets to grab the rebound and finish with a nifty one-handed slam.
He did it right near the Jazz bench, and his teammates went wild, cheering and pretending to fall backward on each other in awe.
Joe Ingles led the Jazz with a career-high 27 points, but it was the star rookie who provided the highlight of the night as the Jazz evened the Western Conference semifinals 1-1 with a 116-108 win.
Ingles made a career-best seven 3-pointers and Mitchell added 17 points and a franchise rookierecord 11 assists for his first game this postseason in which he scored fewer than 20 points and didn’t lead the team in scoring.
But he certainly provided an emotional boost to his team with his highlight-reel play. He smiled broadly when it was brought up after the game and said he was just trying to get the rebound on his miss when he made a split-second decision.
“I just happened to be up there,” he said. “So I said: ‘Why come down with it?’ ”
The Jazz squandered a huge early lead before using a big fourth quarter to regain control and head home for Game 3 on Friday in Utah with a chance to take the series lead over the top-seeded Rockets.
Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni said Mitchell was the key to the win.
“He was breaking us down,” D’Antoni said. “He was getting in there and was finding guys in the corner. He’s a handful whether he’s finishing or not.”
The Jazz were behind by two with eight minutes left before using a 16-2 run to pull away.
After trailing by 25 points at halftime of the 110-96 loss in the series opener, the Jazz jumped out to an early lead in this one and led by as many as 19 in the first half.
“Last game, we came out completely opposite. Tonight, they kind of caught us off-guard,” the Rockets’ James Harden said. “We adjusted to it in that second quarter, but we can’t get down 19 no matter who we’re playing.”
The Rockets regained the lead in the third quarter but couldn’t keep pace with the Jazz in the fourth.
Harden had 32 points and 11 assists, and Chris Paul added 23 points as the Rockets fell to the Jazz for the first time this season.
After taking just four shots in Game 1 and finishing with 11 points, Gobert got going early Wednesday and had 13 points on 5-of-7 shooting by halftime. But he was mostly quiet after the break, finishing with 15 plus 14 rebounds.