Chris Paul has a 4th quarter throwback as the Spurs come back by 20 to beat the Jazz

SALT LAKE CITY — Chris Paul can still close out a game.

The 12-time NBA All-Star came to San Antonio to help mentor a young team. The Spurs (and Jazz) got a hands-on lesson in the fourth.

Paul had 11 points and three assists in the fourth quarter, helping the Spurs complete a 126-118 comeback win over the Jazz Thursday in San Antonio.

The Spurs outscored the Jazz by 24 points in the second half, erased Utah’s 16-point halftime lead and eventually pulled away. Paul led a 13-4 run in the final four minutes that ended Utah’s hopes.

Harrison Barnes had 25 points and 10 rebounds, including a 3-pointer with 50 seconds left that pushed the Spurs’ lead to 10.

Lauri Markkanen had 27 points for Utah, but 19 of them came in the first half. The Jazz star forward took just two shots in the fourth quarter.

It initially appeared that the Jazz would benefit from San Antonio’s lengthy injury report; Spurs were without Victor Wembanyama, Devin Vassel and Jeremy Sochan on Thursday. Utah jumped out to a 20-point lead in the first half.

“I thought the first half, the energy, the pace, the ball movement, the competitive spirit of the team was as good as we’ve seen in a while,” Utah Jazz coach Will Hardy said.

That push was led by Markkanen’s great first half, as well as a surprising round of shots from Brice Sensabaugh.

The second-year wing had fallen out of Utah’s rotation of late and hadn’t played in five of the last six games, including the last four. He got a chance Thursday with Jordan Clarkson out with left plantar fasciitis.

Sensabaugh airballed his first attempt, but quickly found his rhythm after that. He scored 13 of his 18 points in the first half to help Utah build the lead.

“He hasn’t complained. He hasn’t had a woe-is-me mentality,” Hardy said. “He’s just come to work every day and he’s taken hard coaching. … He understands what’s expected of him, but to his credit, he was ready and he deserves all the credit for that.”

In the second half, however, the game turned.

The ball stopped moving and the Jazz stopped generating quality looks (Utah had 16 assists in the first half to just six in the second). There were defensive breakdowns that led to the Spurs scoring 75 points after halftime, and it seemed like the Jazz lost almost every 50-50 ball. The energy, pace, passing and competitive spirit were almost gone.

It meant a quick comeback for San Antonio.

“It’s all of us,” said Keyonte George, who had 19 points on 6-of-18 shooting and five assists. “We all have pockets in the game where we’re not going to get the rebound, not get the loose ball.

Still, the Jazz had a chance to win in the end. It was a one-possession game with four minutes left. These are the moments that Hardy wants his group to experience (though he would have preferred them to just hang on to that big lead). This is when the game tightens up and real growth can occur; there is just no simulation of the final minutes in practice.

Utah closed with youngsters Isaiah Collier, Keyonte George and Brice Sensabaugh along with veterans John Collins and Markkanen.

Utah didn’t close well, took ill-advised shots, lost loose ball games and let the Spurs leak out for easy buckets. And with that, the team’s best half of basketball this season was wasted.

“At the end of the day, you have to play two halves,” said Collin Sexton, who had 18 points on 13 shots. “We have to play 48 minutes. You can’t let the first half get you too high or too low, you always have to stay consistent and just keep building on it.”