Ingles and Jazz keep faintest hope alive

JOE Ingles’ Utah Jazz remain alive in the NBA playoffs after a dominant fourth sealed a home victory over the Houston Rockets to avoid a series sweep.

The Jazz defeated the Rockets 107-91 in Salt Lake City on Monday. The Rockets still lead the best-of-seven showdown 3-1 and can extinguish the Jazz with a win in Wednesday’s game five in Houston.

The Rockets led the Jazz 79-76 at the end of the third quarter but Utah guard Donovan Mitchell exploded with back-to-back three-pointers to open the final period to fire up his team and his home fans.

Mitchell had 31 points and power forward Jae Crowder was electric with 23 points.

Australia’s Ingles is having a disappointing series and is shooting just 23.5 per cent from behind the three-point line, compared to a career 40.8 per cent.

Ingles had three points in game four, missing three of his four field-goal attempts.

James Harden, the Rockets’ All-star and NBA MVP candidate, started cold but finished the game with 30 points, connecting with six of his 12 threepointers.

In Monday’s other game, Sudanese-born Australianraised Thon Maker might be questioning his decision to request a mid-season trade from the Milwaukee Bucks.

Maker and the Pistons were swept 4-0 by the rampaging Bucks in Detroit.

The Bucks’ NBA MVP candidate Giannis Antetokounmpo scored a play-off career-high 41 points and delivered a monster dunk over Maker to lead top-seeded Milwaukee to a 127-104 win.

The win booked Milwaukee a place in the conference semifinals for the first time since 2001. They will face confident fourth-seeds Boston, who also swept the Indiana Pacers 4-0.

The Celtics beat the Bucks in seven games in last year’s playoffs. Detroit set an unwanted NBA record with their 14th consecutive playoff loss, a skid that began in 2008.