At the 6:36 mark of the third quarter, Jae Crowder and Kyle Korver entered the game for the Utah Jazz, who at the time were down two points to the Golden State Warriors. Crowder and Korver were the first two Jazz players to make shots after that — both 3-pointers — sparking a run that gave Utah some momentum.
Crowder and Korver combined for 15 points in the third quarter after scoring the same amount in the entire first half, and helped the Jazz gain the separation they needed to get a hard-fought 108-103 win over the Warriors on Wednesday.
Crowder finished the game with 18 points 6-of-11 shooting, including 5 of 9 from the 3-point line. Korver added 12 points with his four made field goals coming from beyond the arc.
“Both those guys, I thought they got good looks,” head coach Quin Snyder said of Crowder and Korver. “They were aggressive, ready to shoot. They spaced the right way and we found them.”
In a tight third quarter where both teams started to find their rhythm offensively, it was Crowder and Korver’s shooting that quelled any threat of the Warriors running away with the game. Korver’s triple gave the Jazz a 72-70 lead, and Crowder drilled one that gave them a 78-74 advantage.
Korver hit again for an 81-76 Utah lead that forced the Warriors to take a timeout.
“I think that just gave us a big energy boost going into the end of the third and into the fourth [quarter],” Donovan Mitchell said.
Crowder made another 3-pointer with less than a minute left in the third quarter for his 18th point of the night.
After every 3-pointer the Jazz made in that third frame, the crowd roared. Korver said making shots during that stretch in the third quarter may have given the team some energy. He added that usually it’s the Warriors making big runs with consecutive 3s, which builds momentum for them.
“[Those shots] probably did that for us tonight,” Korver said.
The Jazz found themselves in a shootout with the Warriors in parts of the game, particularly in the third quarter. Korver said that while a team generally does not want to go toe-to-toe with Golden State in that way, teams have to put the ball through the net to keep them at bay.
“Everyone talks about their offense, but man, those guys guard,” Korver said. “They’ve got a really good scheme and some really good defenders, so you have to make shots against them, too. So it’s good to have that happen in the third quarter.”
