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Houston • Rodney Hood was speaking for himself when he described his winning drive, draw and dish to Derrick Favors to give the Utah Jazz an 89-87 win over the Houston Rockets on Wednesday night.
But the words may as well have described the tenor of the entire team. In a game where the Jazz were horrid for the first 24 minutes, they rose from an early grave in the second half. In the process, one of the youngest teams in the league played like veterans.
All of which make Hood's words pretty ironic.
"I don't think I could've played any worse," Hood said. "But it's all about making winning plays at the end of the game."
And there you have it. Favors' dunk with 1.6 seconds remaining gave the Jazz their biggest win of the season before a stunned sellout crowd at the Toyota Center. And it was Hood who made the play, getting into the paint against Harden, attracting defenders and finding Favors alone on the baseline for the winning bucket.
In truth, however, Utah's road win over the Rockets started long before the culminating basket. The Jazz rallied from 18 points down in the second half, finally solving Houston's offense and finally finding some offense of their own.
And the heroes were almost too many to count on this night. There was Shelvin Mack, who hit maybe the second biggest shot of the night, a 3-pointer with 56 seconds remaining to tie the game at 85-85. The point guard scored 13 of his 16 points in the second half. There was Gordon Hayward, who dropped in a team-high 22 points, and came up with a steal off perfect ball denial on Harden on Houston's ensuing possession.
There was Trevor Booker, who ignited the Jazz with hustle and energy, turning the game around in the second half. There was Favors himself, who worked his way to 17 points, 15 rebounds and three blocked shots. The cliche "team effort" is consistently floated by coaches after big wins. But it was true of the Jazz against the Rockets.
"We as a team, we just made the plays in the second half," Hayward said. "We didn't play very well in the first half, but guys stepped up when they needed to and made big shots. We all rebounded, we got steals, and it was a great win because of that."
Victory for the Jazz wasn't secure until Harden missed a contested 3-pointer at the buzzer. And while Harden was magnificent on Wednesday night - he scored 26 points, had 10 assists, eight steals and seven rebounds - Utah forced him into one miss when it had to.
The win puts the Jazz in the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference. Utah moves to 35-36 on the season, and the Jazz have won six of their last seven games. Houston, meanwhile, lost for the second time in two nights, and face a difficult stretch of games over the next two weeks.
"It's tough, man, it's tough," Harden said. "It's tough coming off the road trip. Losing two tough ones and then coming home and then losing another tough one. We got to bounce back on Friday (against the Toronto Raptors)."
The Jazz defeated the Rockets on the road for the first time since 2012 on Wednesday night, a span of six games. They outscored Houston 55-38 in the second half, after shooting 31 percent from the field in the first half, and turning the ball over 22 times overall.
"We had some big performances tonight," Utah coach Quin Snyder said. "We had guys step up. I won't say we were nervous during the game, but we were off. Houston has been here before. I thought their pressure really bothered us, but our guys composed themselves and we started getting stops."
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Jazz 89, Rockets 87
FG FT Reb
Utah Min M-A M-A O-T A PF Pts
Hayward 39:37 5-11 10-12 1-6 5 2 22
Favors 36:09 7-15 3-4 6-15 4 2 17
Gobert 23:23 1-7 0-0 4-7 1 2 2
Mack 32:38 6-12 1-2 0-2 3 1 16
Hood 37:31 2-11 2-2 0-5 4 4 7
Booker 26:04 5-6 0-0 1-5 4 2 10
Ingles 14:55 2-3 0-0 0-2 1 3 6
Neto 15:22 3-6 0-0 1-3 0 1 9
Lyles 9:42 0-5 0-0 0-3 0 0 0
Johnson 4:40 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 2 0
Totals 240:01 31-77 16-20 13-48 22 19 89
Percentages: FG .403, FT .800. 3-Point Goals: 11-29, .379 (Neto 3-4, Mack 3-7, Ingles 2-3, Hayward 2-4, Hood 1-7, Booker 0-1, Lyles 0-3). Team Rebounds: 10. Team Turnovers: 23 (23 PTS). Blocked Shots: 5 (Favors 3, Booker, Hayward). Turnovers: 22 (Mack 6, Gobert 4, Hood 4, Favors 3, Booker, Hayward, Ingles, Lyles, Neto). Steals: 8 (Hayward 4, Mack 2, Booker, Hood). Technical Fouls: None.
FG FT Reb
Houston Min M-A M-A O-T A PF Pts
Ariza 37:55 5-8 0-0 0-3 1 4 12
Mtijuns 18:08 3-10 1-4 1-3 1 2 9
Howard 34:34 2-6 1-2 1-8 1 3 5
Beverley 32:26 2-7 0-0 0-1 6 3 5
Harden 41:51 8-19 8-9 0-7 10 3 26
Beasley 20:16 5-10 0-2 0-1 0 1 10
Capela 18:34 4-5 2-4 1-5 0 3 10
Brewer 17:16 4-6 0-1 0-2 1 2 10
Terry 15:59 0-2 0-0 1-1 1 0 0
McDanils 3:01 0-1 0-0 0-1 1 0 0
Totals 240:00 33-74 12-22 4-32 22 21 87
Percentages: FG .446, FT .545. 3-Point Goals: 9-23, .391 (Brewer 2-3, Ariza 2-4, Motiejunas 2-5, Harden 2-6, Beverley 1-4, Terry 0-1). Team Rebounds: 11. Team Turnovers: 15 (17 PTS). Blocked Shots: 9 (Howard 6, Capela 2, Ariza). Turnovers: 14 (Harden 5, Beverley 3, Ariza 2, Howard 2, Beasley, Motiejunas). Steals: 13 (Harden 8, Capela 2, Beverley, Brewer, Motiejunas). Technical Fouls: None.
Utah 21 13 26 29 — 89
Houston 25 24 17 21 — 87
Attendance • 18,151
Time • 2:15.
Officials • Marc Davis, Nick Buchert, Eric Lewis.