Utah Jazz: Donovan Mitchell comes alive vs Adelaide 36ers

After a shaky start, Donovan Mitchell and the Utah Jazz took control in their preseason bout with the NBL’s Adelaide 36ers.

If you were looking for the Utah Jazz dominate the Adelaide 36ers in the same manner they took the Perth Wildacts behind the woodshed last week, you were in for a big surprise on Friday night.

Ultimately, the end result was one you might have expected — the Jazz won the game 129-99 — but the journey’s beginning was bonkers.

Rudy Gobert (rest) was a late scratch for the Jazz and Derrick Favors was quickly whistled for four fouls in his stead. The 36ers subsequently took advantage of the duo’s absence in a major way during the opening carom, putting up a 31 spot on the home team.

Nathan Sobey led the way for Adelaide with a double-digit quarter (he went on to score 25 points in the game). All the while, the Jazz couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn from the field.

It was the preseason-est stretch of preseason hoops you’ll ever see. It was also somewhat short-lived.

The 36ers continued to lead into the second period, but Donovan Mitchell and Co. wrested control of the game as the quarter wore on. All told, Mitchell scored a team-high 18 points in 18 first-half minutes and spearheaded a 38-point quarter that restored order to the basketball universe.

After gaining their foothold, the Jazz were able to rest their big guns and roll out the bench brigade in the second half while cruising to victory.

Most of Mitchell’s offense came off the kind of dribble penetration that was his calling card during a standout rookie season. As was the case against the Wildcats, his 3-point shot was nowhere to be found. He missed six of his seven attempts from distance in this game, bringing his total tally for exhibition play to four makes on 14 attempts.

These games may just be tune-ups, but you’d like to see Mitchell up his efficiency after he hit on less than 35 percent of his triples last season. Still, this was by far his most dominant offensive effort of the preseason.

Point-man Ricky Rubio struggled with his shot overall, but he did hit 2-of-5 shots from behind the arc. The fact that he’s taking those shots with confidence (and hitting them to boot) could be a sign of big things to come for the Jazz offense. Speaking of, Rubio also did well in directing Utah’s attack.

So, too, did Grayson Allen, who was better in the back-up role than he was against the Toronto Raptors on Tuesday. He got extended run with the rest of the bench unit during the second half and was aggressive with the ball in his hands and in the catch-and-shoot without forcing the action.

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Allen led the Jazz in minutes at 24 and finished with 16 points on 6-of-8 shooting (with four triples) in the game. Similarly, Alec Burks had a bounce-back game with 16 of his own. Georges Niang added 12 points on 5-of-7 from the floor.

The night was a lot less productive for Joe Ingles and Jae Crowder, who combined to go 0-for-11. Once again, though, we’re talking about exhibition ball — there’s nothing to sweat there.

On the whole, it was a bit of an uninspired effort by the Jazz against an Adelaide side that played hard throughout and kept the game reasonably close before the Jazz blew things open late. I would anticipate a better effort when the team returns to action on Sunday against the Portland Trail Blazers.