The Jazz found themselves against a wall Sunday night down two with 1.6 seconds left to go in the fourth quarter as the Rockets prepared to defend the inbound play. Bojan Bogdanovic was having a great season so far but was struggling to make shots and was just 1-6 from the field until he was subbed back in for the final play.
As Rudy Gobert went to set to a screen for Donovan Mitchell, Houston had it covered but Bogdanovic was trailing behind him and looped up to catch the ball 29 feet from the basket. He managed to get off a shot in between the outstretched hands of James Harden and PJ Tucker to drill a three-pointer at the buzzer giving the Jazz a 114-112 win.
“It’s big-time from their part to have that trust and confidence in me that I would make the last shot after the game that I had,” Bogdanovic said. “I was, from the beginning of the game, kind of off. But when you have a coaching staff that draws the last play for you, you better go out there with the confidence.”
Mitchell praised his teammate who previously hit a game-winning three against Milwaukee in November.
“They guarded it well, but sometimes great offense beats great defense,” said Mitchell, who scored 10 of his 24 points in the fourth quarter. “He can go 0-for-20, 0-for-21, 0-for-30. When it comes down to it, he’s the guy you want with the ball on that play.”
According to Second Spectrum data, it was the second most difficult game winning shot this season with just a 12.6% probability of going in. “He’s our best shooter,” said Jazz point guard Mike Conley, who had 20 points and six assists. “He’s a guy who’s made big shots in the past for us. We rely on that, and he feels like he’s the guy that can do that no matter how he’s shooting.”
After sinking the buzzer beater, Bogdanovic was seen celebrating and shouting something as he embraced his teammates. They weren’t sure what he was saying.“There’s no way to translate,” Bogdanovic said. “They already asked me. I cursed in my language. You cannot translate it in English.”
Bogdanovic has been a huge pickup for the Jazz averaging 20.9 points (career high), 4.1 rebounds and 2.1 assists in 33.2 minutes per game.
