SALT LAKE CITY -- The Sacramento Kings had their fair share of heartbreaking losses this season.

On Thursday, they were on the good side of a thriller.

Forward Rudy Gay saved the day for the Kings, hitting a game-winning jumper with less than a second remaining for a 103-101 win over the Utah Jazz.

"It's the NBA, baby," Kings coach George Karl said. "I've watched the same screenplay twice a night. Leads on the road don't last."

The Jazz worked out of a 10-point deficit in the final five minutes and finally tied the game with four seconds remaining on 3-pointer by backup forward Joe Ingles.

Gay took the ensuing inbounds pass after the ball was advanced with four seconds left following a Sacramento timeout. He dribbled to the right elbow and lifted the Kings to a big win.

"Obviously, they doubled on (DeMarcus) Cousins," Gay said. "I just tried to get open and got a shot off."

Cousins, Sacramento's All-Star forward, had a huge outing, scoring 36 points and grabbing 17 rebounds. Gay finished with 24 points and nine rebounds.

Utah forward Gordon Hayward trimmed the lead to three with 29 seconds left after a basket and a free throw, helping to set up the dramatic ending.

Hayward finished with 21 points on 4-of-17 shooting, and he pulled down eight rebounds. Rookie forward Trey Lyles had a career-best 19 points for the Jazz.

"I shot the ball extremely well in warmups, and maybe I got rid of all of them then," Hayward said. "It felt good. It felt good the past couple of weeks, but for whatever the reason, they were not falling, so we will figure it out. We will be all right."

Guard Trey Burke scored 17, guard Rodney Hood contributed 15 and point guard Raul Neto added 13 for the Jazz, who fell for the second night in a row.

Utah (17-22) is just one game ahead of the Kings (16-23) in the fight for the Western Conference's final playoff spot.

Both teams were playing on the second night of a back-to-back situation, with Utah having lost 99-85 at Portland and the Kings getting drubbed by the Pelicans 109-97 Wednesday.

It was the short-handed Jazz who looked the most sluggish for much of the night.

Utah's shot was way off in the first quarter, when it hit four of 24 field-goal attempts while Sacramento shot 55.6 percent for a 26-12 lead.

"We could have won the game, but we reacted too late," Jazz center Rudy Gobert said. "We've got to, when the game starts, be ready to come back on defense, especially against this team. We know what they do. We just need to be focused."

The Jazz offense got a spark in the second quarter, outscoring the Kings 33-30, but Utah still trailed 56-45 at halftime after Cousins ended the half with a last-second, put-back dunk.

Lyles and Trey Burke keyed a 9-0 run that helped Utah get within 85-80.

Rookie Willie Cauley-Stein responded with a big put-back bucket for the Kings, and Cousins followed with a 3-pointer as Sacramento re-established a 10-point lead.

The Jazz didn't quit, trimming the Kings' lead back down to three after Gay seemed to have put the game away with a couple of baskets and a free throw.

Hayward made a wild, no-look shot while being fouled and hit the ensuing free throw to trim the Kings' lead to 101-98 with 29.2 seconds remaining.

Sacramento guard Rajon Rondo missed a jumper, and the Jazz then tied it on Ingles' 3-pointer.

The Kings had one last hurrah, though, and they improved to 6-12 on the road.

Utah, already playing without multiple key players, including injured forward Derrick Favors and guard Alec Burks, lost backup power forward Trevor Booker midway through the third quarter. He was inadvertently hit in the face by Cousins and was helped off the court with concussion-like symptoms.

"I told the team, there's two sides to the coin," Jazz coach Quin Snyder said. "In one sense, it shows incredible resolve and toughness and togetherness to be able to battle back under these circumstances -- not just being down 18 but what was going on with the team while we were down 18 and hanging in there.

"At the same time, we did some things to ourselves early in the game that contributed to that, and that made it hard."

NOTES: The Kings switched up their starting lineup, reinserting rookie C Willie Cauley-Stein into the first five with PG Rajon Rondo, SG Ben McLemore, SF Rudy Gay and PF DeMarcus Cousins. Sacramento went 3-3 at the beginning of the season with those starters. "Defensively, we need to get better, and Willie played very active (Wednesday) night," Kings coach George Karl said. ... The Jazz played without starting PF Derrick Favors (back spasms) for the 12th consecutive game. "Like any injury, it's gotta run its course," coach Quin Snyder said. "It's being treated. Obviously, more than anything, we just want him healthy." ... The Jazz (F Joe Ingles) and Kings (F Omri Casspi) each have a player who previously played for Maccabi Tel Aviv in Israel.