After three quarters, it looked like the Utah Jazz were on their way to a win against the Portland Trail Blazers on Thursday night in the final game of a five-game road trip.

The Jazz played incredibly well on offense despite being without three of their top five scorers – Jordan Clarkson (plantar fasciitis), John Collins (left hip bruise) and Keyonte George (sprained left ankle) – and had done a good job keeping the trail Blazer away from color.

Against Portland, the Jazz shot 50% from 3-point range and allowed just 32 points in the first three quarters.

In just his ninth game on the court with the Jazz, Svi Mykhailiuk was successful from the start and hit a career-high six 3-pointers.

Lauri Markkanen was on fire, leading the Jazz with 25 points to go with six rebounds and three steals, and Collin Sexton posted a double-double with 19 points and 11 assists.

But in the fourth quarter, the Jazz’s defense faltered. Deni Avdija and Shaedon Sharpe made it a point to get to the rim and make the Jazz pay for mistakes at the rim.

The two combined for 26 points in the fourth quarter, helping the Blazers cut the Jazz’s lead.

“We had given up 23 points at the rim in three quarters, and we gave up 24 points at the rim in the fourth quarter alone,” Jazz head coach Will Hardy said.

“Our defense just fell apart.”

The teams played fairly evenly over the final six minutes, tying the lead on nearly every possession, including a game-winning three-pointer from Markkanen with just 14 seconds left.

But it was second-year guard Scoot Henderson who had the ball in his hands on the Blazers’ final play down the court and, with just a tenth of a second left on the clock, hit a game-winning shot from 12 feet away to give the Blazers a 122-120 lead -to bring victory.

“We went into the game with the idea that we needed to do a few things with their personnel, but overall we felt like if we took care of the rim we had a really good chance of winning this game and could act offensively,” Hardy said.

“And we did that for three quarters. I felt like we maybe overreacted a little bit in the fourth quarter because a couple guys made a couple threes, but the rim was the most important thing.”

With several of the Jazz players sidelined due to injuries, the team’s rookies had the opportunity to play longer. Isaiah Collier, Kyle Filipowski and Cody Williams were all on the team and were able to play against the Blazers in a game that ended in a loss but will ultimately be a valuable, close game experience for the youngsters.

“I feel like it’s a great experience for all of us because we have a young team and we learn a lot from the close games,” said Mykhailiuk. “I hope that we learn from our mistakes and that we can move on. This is a great experience because it gives us a chance to play late in the game and see how we need to approach it.”

The Jazz will be back at the Delta Center on Saturday to face the Philadelphia 76ers and then back at home on Monday to play the Denver Nuggets.