Utah Jazz: Jimmer Fredette has heroic opportunity, but Jazz win

SALT LAKE CITY — After 47 minutes and 50 seconds of loud cheers and boos from a split-personality crowd, exciting and error-filled hoops, and unexpected performances, both good and bad, the outcome of the Sacramento Kings-Utah Jazz game was up for grabs.

The underdog Kings had possession, trailing by two. The clock was ticking down. The raucous EnergySolutions Arena crowd was gasping at the scenario that had unfolded.

And suddenly, after he fought his way through a scrum, the basketball ended up in the hands of one Jimmer Fredette behind the 3-point line.

Of course it did.

What happened next riled up anti-Jimmerites who'd booed the heck out of the former BYU star every time he touched the ball all night, bummed out the Fredette fanatics who'd screamed their guts out for him, and elated fans who simply wanted the home team to win.

With the spotlight on the rookie, The Jimmer got some airtime.

Just not the kind he wanted.

Gordon Hayward hit a free throw a second after Fredette's 25-foot airball and the Jazz survived their first encounter with Jimmermania, escaping with an emotional and much-needed 96-93 victory.

"Good win for us — after last night and traveling back, it was a tough loss in Dallas," Jazz coach Tyrone Corbin said after his team snapped a two-game losing streak the day after falling apart in a 116-101 loss to the Mavericks.

"The guys, the emotion of The Jimmer coming back to Salt Lake and the excitement there — you know what, we'll take the win," Corbin added. "We didn't execute and play our best basketball, but we gutted it out and got a good win."

This was not your normal Jazz game by any stretch of the imagination.

Sure, Utah got big offensive performances from their Big Two — but the Big Two wasn't their usually reliable tandem of Paul Millsap and Al Jefferson. They combined for only 18 points on 7-for-23 shooting.

On this night, rather, the dynamic duo turned out to be Gordon Hayward (21 points) and C.J. Miles (20 points). Picking up the slack for their struggling stars, the young swingmen were instrumental in getting the Jazz (11-7) back on a winning path after tough losses to the defending NBA champs and to lowly Toronto at home Wednesday.

"It makes us a much harder team to guard," Hayward said, speaking of contributions from the Jazz wing players. "It's easy when you just throw it in the post and if they're not going then it's just like, 'What do you do then?' So it's good when we step up like that. We need to do that."

Sacramento played like the Chris Webber Era Kings, with Tyreke Evans going off for 31 points, three sidekicks scoring 14 apiece (including Fredette) and 5-foot-9 Isaiah "Spud" Thomas igniting a fourth-quarter comeback with all 13 of the visitors' total bench points coming in the final period.

The mixed-allegiance crowd was even more divided than when the Lakers bring their bandwagon into town, with some for the Jazz, some for Jimmer, some for both.

As if all that were bizarre enough, the Jazz won despite having more turnovers (17) than assists (15), being outshot (46.2 percent to 44.3 percent), and allowing the black-and-purple-clad No. 7 to get a game-winning look from his sweet spot.

"A win is a win," Miles said. "We'll take it however we can get it. We had to scrap a little bit."

OK, Cougar and Ute Jazz fans, you can go back to cheering for the same pro team again.