SALT LAKE CITY — It seemed fitting that a Utah Jazz point guard stole the show Wednesday night at EnergySolutions Arena.
On a day when the organization honored point guard John Stockton, having fun with the 12/12/12 date and the Hall of Famer’s No. 12 jersey number, Mo Williams hit a game-winning 3-pointer at the buzzer to lead the Utah Jazz to a 99-96 victory over the San Antonio Spurs.
Williams shot helped him make up for missing a go-ahead jumper just seconds before.
“It showed how much my teammates believe in me, showed how much the coaches believe in me,” said Williams, who had an otherwise forgettable night with eight points on 3-for-9 shooting and just four assists. “It was a tough night shooting for me, missed a couple shots down the stretch that I felt good about. They came back to me and it shows how much confidence they have in me.”
Paul Millsap grabbed an offensive rebound, giving the Jazz one last shot to get a rare win over the Spurs. Williams took an inbound pass, let the clock tick down and unleashed a long shot that hit nothing but net after the clock hit 0.0 and sent the announced crowd of 18,710 at EnergySolutions Arena into delirium.
“It’s great — not only for him but for everybody,” Jazz coach Tyrone Corbin said. “This team is working extremely hard to get better and we’re showing some growth together as a group, and it’s great to get a reward like this tonight.”
Millsap scored 24 points and grabbed 12 rebounds, Al Jefferson added 21 points and Gordon Hayward contributed 19 points off the bench for the Jazz. The win was Utah’s fourth in a row and improved the team’s record to 13-10 overall and 9-1 at home.
Tim Duncan scored 22 points and grabbed 21 rebounds and Tony Parker added 22 points and seven assists for the Spurs, who had their five-game winning streak snapped.
San Antonio (18-6) had won 10 of its past 11 games overall and 11 of 12 against the Jazz, including a four-game sweep in the first round of the 2012 playoffs.
Spurs coach Gregg Popovich was frustrated that Williams got such an open look to win the game.
“That’s a huge defensive error. What do you think a guy is going to do with two seconds on the clock? You make him drive,” Popovich said. “You don’t step back on Mo Williams. That’s why he (Danny Green) was on him, so we didn’t have a small guy like Tony. We put a big guy on him for that one reason, to get up into him and he backed off. Huge defensive error that cost us the game.”
Hayward gave the Jazz a five-point lead late in the third quarter with a 3-pointer after a Duncan missed trey.
But the Spurs subs sparked a game-changing shift, with Patty Mills draining one beyond the arc and Tiago Splitter dunking to tie the game at 71-71 heading into the fourth quarter.
San Antonio’s bench continued that productive trend, and the Spurs went ahead by eight on a Boris Diaw 3-pointer with 4:09 to go. But Utah, which had one home loss coming into this game, wasn’t finished.
The Jazz picked up the defensive intensity, Jefferson hit a couple of jumpers and Hayward connected from deep and pushed hard on a transition to set Randy Foye up with a layup to quickly help Utah trim that lead down to two with 2 1/2 minutes remaining.
Utah outscored the Spurs by 11 points in the final four minutes.
“It was disappointing down the stretch,” Duncan said. “Made too many mistakes as a team. Individually, I made too many mistakes.”
NOTES: In light of Wednesday’s date being 12/12/12, Spurs coach Gregg Popovich was asked about John Stockton, the Hall of Fame guard who wore No. 12 for 19 years in Utah. “It was fun watching him,” Popovich said. “If he was playing, I’d just be staring at him — he and Karl. I wouldn’t even notice anything else.” … The Jazz were excited to have Derrick Favors back after the power forward missed five games with plantar fasciitis. “We need his size and his shot-blocking ability at the basket,” Jazz coach Tyrone Corbin said. Favors scored six points in 12 minutes. … Utah had lost 11 of 12 games to the Spurs entering Wednesday’s game. The Jazz’s only victory came right before the playoffs last year when the Spurs left Duncan, Parker and Manu Ginobili home to rest. … Popovich laughed while talking about Jazz general manager Dennis Lindsey and Spurs assistant general manager Scott Layden switching organizations this offseason. “We did this little trade,” he said. Lindsey was with San Antonio for five years before replacing Kevin O’Connor, who remained with Utah as executive vice president of basketball operations. Layden spent 25 years with the Jazz, dating back to the early 1980s when he was a scout and assistant under his dad, Frank Layden. The younger Layden was a Utah assistant from 2005-12.