LDN - Sports

Hayward, Gobert power Jazz past Suns

[December 07, 2016] SALT LAKE CITY -- As soon as he felt his left ring finger start throbbing, Gordon Hayward had plenty of reasons to fear the worst.

Hayward had fractured the same finger in the preseason and the injury had caused him to miss the first six games of the season for the Utah Jazz.

When his finger got popped on a play late in the third quarter against the Phoenix Suns on Tuesday night, Hayward became concerned with the stinger that followed. He cradled the finger in obvious pain and headed back to the locker room.

X-rays revealed no new break, so Hayward got it re-taped and returned to action in the fourth quarter. He then delivered the go-ahead basket in Utah's 112-105 victory.

"I don't think it got caught on a jersey," Hayward said. "It just got caught on a body and kind of bent in a little bit again. It's throbbing pretty good right now. I could really feel it for the rest of the game. But that's how it is. I've said it before: You just have to play through it. We needed a win tonight, so I had to be out there."

Hayward finished with 28 points. None were more important than his final basket.

For the third straight game, Utah (14-9) took a double-digit lead into the fourth quarter and watched it vanish through sluggish play. The Jazz scored just nine points through the first 10 minutes of the quarter, and Phoenix took full advantage.

The Suns (6-15) ripped off a 12-3 run, starting with a 3-pointer from Dragan Bender and ending with a running layup from Leandro Barbosa, to tie the game at 103-103 with 3:06 remaining.

Barbosa missed a go-ahead layup moments later and the Jazz reclaimed a 107-103 lead behind back-to-back baskets from Hayward and Mack with 1:30 left. Rudy Gobert hit a pair of free throws and scored on a reverse slam dunk in the final minute to ice the victory for Utah.

"I don't think we're playing our best defense at all," Jazz coach Quin Snyder said. "The ball has gotten in the paint too much. We've been playing teams that are just driving the ball. In some respects, when Rudy is protecting the rim, that's good. But if you look at the lineups we've had, we haven't had a lot of quickness on the floor. Guys have got to be more disciplined."

Gobert added a career-high 22 points, 11 rebounds and four blocks for the Jazz. Boris Diaw and Joe Johnson added 13 points apiece and Shelvin Mack chipped in 12 as Utah won for the seventh time in eight games.

Gobert did most of his damage from the free-throw line, where he finished a career-best 10 of 11.

"I've been working hard since I got here," Gobert said. "I always want to improve. That's the main thing for me now, so I'm going to keep doing it."

Devin Booker scored 21 points and Brandon Knight added 15 off the bench to lead Phoenix (6-15), which rallied from a 23-point deficit in the second half but never led.

Phoenix lost despite outrebounding the Jazz 41-35 and finishing with a 54-38 edge in points in the paint, a 17-8 edge in second-chance points and a 15-4 edge in fast-break points.

Suns coach Earl Watson praised his second unit for setting an aggressive tone to enable a fourth-quarter comeback. They played with energy and disrupted Utah's rhythm for the bulk of the final 12 minutes.

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Suns guard Eric Bledsoe (2) looks to pass against Utah Jazz forward Gordon Hayward (20) and center Rudy Gobert (27) in the second quarter at Vivint Smart Home Arena. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Swinger-USA TODAY Sports

"It all starts defensively," Watson said. "They were getting stops. They were hounding the ball and chasing the ball."

Utah took control during the first quarter. The Jazz shot 62.5 percent (5 of 8) from the perimeter while limiting the Suns to just 31.6 percent (6 of 19) from the field. Utah crashed the boards, forced turnovers and blocked several shots to keep Phoenix from finding any sort of rhythm.

It helped Utah open up a 17-6 lead on a trio of 3-pointers from Rodney Hood and Dante Exum. The Jazz built a 33-17 lead when Johnson drilled the team's final 3-pointer of the quarter. Phoenix struggled to stay within striking distance after missing 6 of 8 shots during that stretch.

The Suns finally trimmed the deficit back to single digits in the second quarter. Barbosa converted a 3-point play to cap an 8-0 run and cut Utah's lead to 33-25. Phoenix cut it to eight once more, at 37-29, on a basket and a pair of free throws from Knight.

It didn't get closer than that for the Suns, who fell behind 50-35 on a floater and hook shot from Diaw sandwiched around a one-handed alley oop dunk from Gobert. The Jazz then ripped an 11-0 run late in the second quarter. Hayward and Shelvin Mack book-ended the spurt with 3-pointers, giving the Jazz a 65-43 lead 30 seconds before halftime.

After trailing by as many as 23 points in the third quarter, Phoenix ripped off a 15-1 run to cut the deficit in half. Barbosa finished off the run with back-to-back baskets that trimmed Utah's lead to 95-88 with 6:50 left.

It set the stage for the Suns to cause even more trouble down the stretch.

"Selflessness on defense was the biggest difference between the fourth quarter and the other three quarters," Watson said.

NOTES: Coach Quin Snyder returned to the Jazz bench after sitting out the Monday game against the Los Angeles Lakers with an illness. It was the first game Snyder had missed as a coach. ... Phoenix began the night ranked first in the NBA with 104.3 possessions per 48 minutes. ... Jazz F Gordon Hayward has scored at least 20 points in nine straight games. ... In his four previous starts this season, Suns F P.J. Tucker averaged 13.5 points and 6.3 rebounds while shooting 46.7 percent from 3-point range. Tucker was held scoreless in 21 minutes by the Jazz. ... Utah G Rodney Hood left with a sore hamstring with 3:54 left in the second quarter and did not return.

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