Utah Jazz: Four things that must change to even series with Houston

Mitchell needs to get going, but needs help

In Game 2, Donovan Mitchell was widely praised for his fourth quarter heroics that helped the Jazz stave off the Rockets and win an all-important road game in Houston. However, it wasn’t exactly his best night as he went for 17 points on an inefficient 6-of-21 from the floor.

Still, he came through when he was needed the most and it’s no stretch to say that he still had an electrifying game. After all, he also finished with 11 assists and five rebounds while posting a plus-13 on the night.

That couldn’t have been further from his Game 3 performance where in all honesty, Mitchell put up his first true dud of the postseason. Some of the credit for that should go to solid Houston defense, but part of it was also simply due to poor decisions and lackluster execution from the rookie. Mitchell finished that outing with just 10 points on 4-of-16 shooting and was a putrid minus-31 on the night.

He was the first to admit that it was a rough outing and that for this Jazz team to be successful, he simply can’t have an off night like that. If the Jazz are to bounce back in Sunday’s Game 4, it will need to begin with Donovan Mitchell rediscovering his mojo both in terms of scoring and making the right basketball play. If starting point guard Ricky Rubio is able to make a return from his hamstring injury, which there’s optimism that he will, it should help Donovan immensely.

However, Mitchell still can’t go it alone. He put up 21 points in Game 1 against the Rockets and still the Jazz fell incredibly short. In Game 2, he got help across the board as several players made enormous impacts on offense including Rudy Gobert (15 points), Jae Crowder (15 points), Alec Burks (17 points) and above all Joe Ingles who went off for a playoff career-high 27 points.

In order for the Jazz to keep pace and produce enough firepower to beat a prolific offensive squad like the Rockets, it’s critical that not only Donovan Mitchell step up on offense, but that others do, too. Realistically, for the Jazz to put up enough points, they’ll need both Donovan Mitchell and at least one other person to score at least 20 points or more, be it Ingles, Rubio, Favors, Crowder or anyone else with the hot hand.

Or, as we saw in Game 2, simply a variety of guys need to step up and post double-figure games. Contrast that to Game 3, in which no Jazzman had over 20 points and the leading scorer was Royce O’Neale with 17, and it’s not hard to see why Utah fell so short.

A bounce-back game from Donovan feels like a must if the Jazz are to knot the series at two games apiece, but he can’t do it alone. He’s also going to need a 20-point contribution from one of his teammates, or several double-figure outings from guys across the board as we saw in Game 2.