The Utah Jazz make it four wins in a row after rallying to beat the Brooklyn Nets 119-114 to remain undefeated at home (6-0) this season.
Donovan Mitchell scored 30 points in the win, while Rudy Gobert was at his defensive best, adding 18 points, 15 rebounds and two blocks, coming up with some big plays down the stretch.
The Jazz now hold an 8-3 record, closing out yet another win in crunch-time, which has become their early-season specialty.
Six of their games this season have been decided by five points or less, with Quin Snyder's men winning five of them...and they have their stifling defence to thank.
After DeAndre Jordan's dunk put the Nets up 112-110 with 3:26 remaining, the Jazz closed the game on a 9-2 run, with Gobert scoring back-to-back buckets in the run.
🚨 #LeaguePassAlert 🚨
— NBA (@NBA) November 13, 2019
Rudy Gobert puts the Jazz up with 1:31 remaining!#TakeNote 114#WeGoHard 112
Catch the finish: https://t.co/3bTQPOmwYk pic.twitter.com/FXJutyYZHB
On the other end, his presence in the paint helped force the Nets into missing nine of their last 10 shots, with Joe Ingles and Royce O'Neale making life difficult for Kyrie Irving down the stretch on the perimeter.
Irving had a chance to take the lead with 7.6 seconds remaining, with his three-pointer missing off the front of the rim, under pressure from Ingles and Gobert.
It was a tough night for Irving, who despite scoring 27 points, shot 10-of-30 from the field and 2-of-11 in the fourth quarter. He didn't score a bucket over the final seven minutes.
On the second night of a back-to-back, the Jazz got off to a slow start, going 1-of-13 from the three-point line in the first half as they trailed by 15 points at the break.
“We weren’t defending the way that we could and also we were sluggish offensively,” Snyder said of their first-half effort. “We just had to be sharper mentally.”
Whatever Snyder said at half-time did the trick as the Jazz opened the third on a 13-0 run, erasing the Nets' big lead.
Trailing 92-84 heading into the fourth, the Jazz did it again - opening the quarter on a 19-6 run, led by Jeff Green and Emmanuel Mudiay. Green buried three 3-pointers in the run, on his way to 15 points, while Mudiay added 13 on the night.
For the Nets, DeAndre Jordan added 15 points and 17 rebounds off the bench, while Spencer Dinwiddie scored 21.
