Utah had a four-point lead in the fourth quarter on Wednesday night when Donovan Mitchell missed a jumper and sailed above three Houston Rockets to grab the rebound and finish with a nifty one-handed slam.

He did it right near the Jazz bench and his teammates went wild Danton Heinen Jersey Kids , cheering and pretending to fall backward on each other in awe.

Joe Ingles led the Jazz with a career-high 27 points, but it was the star rookie who provided the highlight of the night as the Jazz evened the Western Conference semifinals 1-1 with a 116-108 win.

Ingles made a career-best seven 3-pointers and Mitchell added 17 points and a franchise rookie-record 11 assists for his first game this postseason where he scored fewer than 20 points and didn’t lead the team in scoring.

But he certainly provided an emotional boost to his team with his highlight-reel worthy play. He smiled broadly when it was brought up postgame, and said he was just trying to get the rebound on his miss when he made a split-second decision.

”I just happened to be up there,” he said. ”So I said: `Why come down with it?”’

The Jazz squandered a huge early lead before using a big fourth quarter to regain control and head home for Game 3 on Friday in Utah with a chance to take a series lead over the top-seeded Rockets.

Houston coach Mike D’Antoni said Mitchell was the key to the win even though he didn’t lead the team in scoring.

”He was breaking us down,” D’Antoni said. ”He was getting in there and was finding guys in the corner. He’s a handful whether he’s finishing or not.”

The Jazz were behind by two with eight minutes left before using a 16-2 run to pull away.

After trailing by 25 points at halftime of the 110-96 loss in the series opener, the Jazz jumped out to an early lead in this one and led by as many as 19 in the first half.

”Last game, we came out completely opposite. Tonight, they kind of caught us off-guard,” Houston’s James Harden said. ”We adjusted to it in that second quarter, but we can’t get down 19 no matter who we’re playing.”

Houston regained the lead in the third quarter but couldn’t keep pace with the Jazz in the fourth as their normally potent offense went cold.

Harden had 32 points and 11 assists Zach Parise Jersey , and Chris Paul added 23 points as Houston fell to the Jazz for the first time this season after winning the first five meetings.

Jazz coach Quin Snyder was pleased at his team’s balanced scoring effort on a night six players finished in double figures, and he raved about the contribution of Ingles.

”Every time Joe has needed to step up his game, he has been able to,” Snyder said. ”He’s committed to that. He knew tonight he would need to make some shots and he was able to do it.”

Houston was down by one entering the fourth but Utah scored eight straight points on 3-pointers from Dante Exum and Jae Crowder before Mitchell’s dunk made it 100-94.

Harden made a basket after that before Utah scored another eight straight points, with two 3s from Ingles, to make it 108-96 with 4 1/2 minutes left.

Harden ended a 2 1/2-minute Houston scoring drought with a 3-pointer about a minute later that was the start of a 9-3 run that got the Rockets within 111-105 with 1:46 left. But Rudy Gobert made one of two free throws before Exum put it out of reach with a dunk.

Utah led by nine before Houston used a 16-5 run to go up 71-69 for its first lead since it was 6-5 with about seven minutes left in the third. The Jazz went back up 86-85 by the end of the period.

After taking just four shots in Game 1 and finishing with 11 points, Gobert got going early Wednesday and had 13 points on 5-of-7 shooting by halftime. But he was mostly quiet after the break, and finished with 15 points and 14 rebounds.

TIP-INS

Jazz: Snyder said before the game that he didn’t know when point guard Ricky Rubio would return. … Utah assistant Igor Kokoskov was hired as head coach of the Phoenix Suns on Wednesday. … Ingles got a technical in the second quarter for arguing with Paul.

Rockets: Luc Mbah a Moute had four points and four rebounds in his second game back after missing the first series after dislocating his right shoulder on April 10. … Paul also received a technical for barking at Ingles. … Clint Capela finished with 21 points and 11 rebounds.

THEY SAID IT

The notoriously low-key Harden when told by a reporter that he looked irritated by Utah’s defense on Wednesday: ”I look like that all the time. That’s just my facial expression.”

UP NEXT

The series moves to Utah where Game 3 is Friday and Game 4 will be played on Sunday.

Jimmy Vaccaro has seen just about everything in 40 years of taking money behind the counter at sports books in this gambling city.

Until Monday. He had never seen a day like this.

Sports betting is about ready to explode across the nation, thanks to the collective wisdom of the justices on the Supreme Court. Their ruling that states are now free to offer sports betting means it may soon be as easy to bet a $20 parlay in some states as it is to order pizza on the phone.

Almost as important for some, it also wipes away the final stigma on an industry that Vaccaro has made both his occupation and his life.

”People like me have been waiting 35 years for this to happen Sean Monahan Jersey ,” said Vaccaro, who operates the sports book at the South Point hotel. ”For a 72-year-old bookmaker it’s special in a very personal way.”

No longer can the Roger Goodells of the world fool anyone with their absurd arguments about the evils of betting. No longer can the NCAA hide behind its archaic fears that college students everywhere will be wagering their scholarship money on Notre Dame plus the points.

Sports betting is now a legitimate industry. And it’s about to go nationwide in a big way.

Imagine, if you can, stopping on the way to the Meadowlands to watch the Jets and putting $20 on them to cover the spread. Better yet, how about sitting in the stands and making bets in real time on your phone?

It’s all coming, and soon. By the time the NFL kicks off next season there easily could be sports betting in a handful of states, maybe more.

That didn’t exactly send bookies out dancing in the streets of Las Vegas to celebrate. There’s a lot of work to be done, and a lot of jockeying for position among gambling companies and sports book operators.

Yes, there is money to be made. But who makes it and how the major sports leagues are involved – if at all – will be a contentious battle over the coming months.

”It’s a gigantic step but there are so many more issues still to be handled,” Vaccaro said.

No one is certain just how big sports betting will become. Estimates of the betting market in the United States are mostly just guesses because no one really knows how many people like to bet or how much they will end up wagering Victor Hedman Jersey , though for perspective Nevada books took in $4.87 billion last year.

One thing that is certain is that if sports betting is regulated like it is in Nevada, it poses no threat to sports leagues or their products.

”Sports betting has always had this dark cloud over it,” said Jay Kornegay, who runs the sports book at the Westgate Las Vegas. ”A lot of people associate it with organized crime, but over the last couple of years the climate has really changed dramatically. That dark cloud has been lightened, and could soon go away.”

Monday’s ruling set off a string of reactions from major sports leagues, with both the NBA and NFL saying they would go to Congress to push for a federal law regulating betting. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has said for several years betting should be legalized and regulated, but it’s new territory for the NFL, which has been adamant that sports betting threatens the integrity of its games.

Then again, if there’s a profit to be made Authentic Nick Bjugstad Jersey , the NFL doesn’t want to be left behind. The pro leagues have in recent months been angling for a piece of the profits with a so-called ”integrity” tax to protect their sports.

The integrity tax, of course, is little more than an attempt to extort money from bookmakers and bettors alike. There is no integrity problem – and no integrity tax – in sports betting in Nevada, where every dollar is watched closely and every point spread is tracked in casinos across town.

”It’s a tightly run ship in Las Vegas,” Kornegay said. ”It’s confusing to me that we haven’t seen more inquiries from other jurisdictions on how to regulate betting. They should understand how the books in Nevada operate.”

Kornegay pointed out – and rightfully so – that sports books aren’t exactly licensed to print money. They operate on small margins – with just a 5.1 percent hold in Nevada last year – and can actually lose money if they get on the wrong side of the action in any particular game.

No one feels sorry for the bookies when that happens, and that won’t change. But almost everything else will in an industry that has succeeded despite the best efforts of the sports leagues to shut it down.

Thanks to the Supreme Court, legal sports betting is coming to a state near you.

And that’s something you can bet on.

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Tim Dahlberg is a national sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at tdahlberg(at)ap.org or Cheap Los Angeles Chargers Jerseys