HOUSTON - The Utah Jazz, a relentless team that fought its way from nine games under .500 in late January all the way to the Western Conference semifinals, had put itself in position to perhaps pull off another amazing rally.
The Houston Rockets' lead, which swelled to as large as 27 points in the first half of Sunday's Game 1, had been sliced to 11 early in the fourth quarter. Jazz rookie sensation Donovan Mitchell had heated up after a slow start, a threat to go on the kind of scoring flurry that sent the Oklahoma City Thunder on an early vacation.