Utah Jazz: No comeback this time as Jazz fall to Thunder

Jazz-Thunder boxscore

SALT LAKE CITY — Monday night's game had most of the ingredients of the Utah Jazz's not-so-secret comeback recipe.

Twelve navy-blue J-note road uniforms, one All-Star performance by Deron Williams, three points from Paul Millsap beyond the arc in crunch time and two strong rallies.

Two strong rallies? Yep, and that part proved to be the problem for the Jazz. For a change, the Comeback Crew's late-game revival wasn't as good as its opponents' resurgence.

The Oklahoma City Thunder (6-4) pulled a Jazz, copycatting the craziest Comeback Crew in the land by overcoming an early double-digit deficit and then fending off the inevitable Utah fourth-quarter surge to stun a sold-out and raucous EnergySolutions Arena crowd with a 115-108 victory.

"We tried hard, I think. We've been very concentrated, but we couldn't make a shot the last couple of possessions, and that kind of cost us the game," Jazz forward Andrei Kirilenko said. "That's a tough game. That's all I can say."

The Jazz, wearing the road uniforms at home in one of their two pre-selected games, stuck to their M.O. and turned it into a thriller after seeing their 12-point lead turn into a 13-point deficit. But OKC had too many weapons and too many defensive answers for Utah to battle back against and its five-game win streak was snapped.

Kevin Durant had his usual 30 points, but the Jazz were doomed by 22-point outings from Russell Westbrook and fill-in starter Serge Ibaka, along with an incredibly clutch 33-for-34 night at the charity stripe.

"They got to the free-throw line 34 times to our 22, so that's the difference in the ballgame," Jazz coach Jerry Sloan said. "We don't have anybody to defend that. I'm going to get somebody to defend the free throws. Maybe the Bear can come out and knock them down once in a while and see if that helps us."

Unlike on their road swing when they struggled in the first half, paving the way for their unprecedented double-digit second-half comebacks, the energy and execution were both there from the get-go for Utah in its first home game in nine days.

Williams, who ended with 31 points, 11 assists and five rebounds, thought he was Millsap and hit three consecutive 3-pointers to finish with 16 first-quarter points.

That sparked the Jazz to step on unfamiliar territory by going ahead by a dozen points in the opening quarter.