Donovan Mitchell scored 19 of his 31 points in the fourth quarter to propel the Utah Jazz to a 107-91 victory over the Houston Rockets on Monday night at Salt Lake City.
Jae Crowder added 23 points as fifth-seeded Utah staved off elimination in Game 4 with its first win in the best-of-seven Western Conference first-round series. Ricky Rubio had 18 points and 11 assists, Derrick Favors recorded 12 points and 11 rebounds, and Royce O’Neale added 11 points and 11 rebounds.
“It’s not over,” Mitchell said in a postgame television interview with TNT. “We have another one, and another one, and another one.”
James Harden scored 30 points for the fourth-seeded Rockets, who will again try to wrap up the series in Wednesday’s Game 5 in Houston.
Chris Paul added 23 points, eight rebounds, seven assists and five steals for the Rockets. Eric Gordon scored 16 points and PJ Tucker added 13.
Utah outscored Houston 31-12 in the fourth quarter.
The Jazz held a 52-35 rebounding edge and connected on 43 percent of their field-goal attempts, including 11 of 35 from behind the arc.
Houston shot 35.4 percent from the field, including 17 of 46 from 3-point range.
Mitchell exploded for 13 points during a 15-1 run to start the fourth quarter as Utah opened up a 91-80 lead with 9:04 to play. Mitchell buried three 3-pointers during the run, including back-to-back long-range shots that had Houston coach Mike D’Antoni frantically signaling for a timeout.
The Rockets moved within 95-86 on Paul’s dunk with 4:43 remaining. Mitchell answered with an acrobatic one-handed slam dunk off a lob from O’Neale, and he added a pull-up jumper to make it 99-86 with 3:41 left.
Houston was unable to make a late-game charge.
Harden scored 12 points in the third quarter as Houston turned a six-point halftime deficit into a 79-76 lead.
Harden’s 3-pointer gave Houston a 72-67 lead with 2:52 left in the period before O’Neale and Georges Niang buried 3-pointers to give Utah a one-point edge.
Austin Rivers drained a 3-pointer to put the Rockets back on top with 1:32 left and Paul later connected on a layup with 0.7 seconds left to account for the three-point lead entering the final stanza.
Crowder scored 18 first-half points and Rubio added 15 as Utah led 53-47 at the break.
—Field Level Media
