Utah Jazz ruin Jimmer Fredette’s homecoming by beating Sacramento Kings 96-93 - NBA Recap
Jimmer Fredette, the hyped rookie from the Salt Lake City, returned home for the first time this season and after a 3-of-4 shooting from distance in the game, as fate had it, the ball found his hands in the dying seconds.
The Utah Jazz were leading by three at that point and Fredette rode his luck again from the long range. However, this time, the ball didn't find the centre of the basket and Utah Jazz won by three points, snapping a two games losing streak.
The final score stood at Kings 93 and Jazz 96 at the Energy Solutions Arena, Salt Lake City in a game played on Saturday.
The former Brigham youngster, after ruining his golden chance with only 4.2 seconds left in the game, said;
"I'm not going to say whether I got fouled or not," said Fredette, who ended up on the floor after the miss. "The ball didn't go in and we lost the game. It was a tough one."
The Sacramento Kings have lost three straight games overall and seven of the last eight games in this season. Nevertheless “Jimmermania” ran wild in Utah and the fans were really excited to see their own boy wonder in action.
The game set off at an escalating pace with Fredette hitting a three pointer in the very beginning of the first quarter. However, the Jazz were up for it and finshed the first frame with a slender 27-26 lead.
The game remained tight and really came to life with a C.J. Miles jam in a quarter that witnessed some jaw dropping plays from both sides.
Tyreke Evans was in the spotlight throughout the night. He bewildered the Jazz by displaying great athletic skills and scored an impressive 31 points and nine assists. He truly was the impetus behind Sacramento, who trailed by 47-49 at the break.
The tension remained high as both teams kept on scoring simultaneously until the mid of third quarter, but then the Jazz broke away. They took a lead of 9 points with a Hayward slam-dunk and augmented the score to 65-56 with six minutes remaining in the third . The kings strived throughout the third quarter to narrow the gap but by the end of 3rd quarter Jazz were still leading by 78-67.
The last quarter was truly heart throbbing and kept the crowd at the edge of their seats as the Kings, keyed by Jason Thompson, made a comeback. With 4:27 minutes left, DeMarcus Cousins, who scored 14 points in the game, hit two free throws and narrowed the gap to 6 points. Evans and Cousins kept on mounting the pressure on the Jazz defence in the passage that followed and it all came down to the last four seconds when Fredette missed the three pointer.
It wasn’t an ending that Fredette has envisioned;
"Hopefully I'll have a lot more (shots to win the game)," said Fredette, who had a chance to see his fiancee while in town. "Hopefully, I'll make a lot of those. But not everybody makes all the game-winning shots and we realize that. Everybody was encouraging and said it was a good look and just didn't go down. That happens."
We do hope that he will be more fortunate in the upcoming endeavor against Golden State next Tuesday.
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