Xmas miracle? Utah Jazz drop Dubs on Donovan Mitchell’s worst night

Despite Donovan Mitchell giving arguably the worst offensive performance of his career, the Utah Jazz captured a big win over the Golden State Warriors.

For the most part, when Donovan Mitchell puts up 26, the Utah Jazz are in good shape. He did just that during Wednesday’s home bout with the defending champion Golden State Warriors, only I’m not talking about points in this instance.

Mitchell was in rare form in the worst possible way this time, missing 21 of those 26 shot attempts (and nine of 11 from distance). Despite doing his best to keep Stephen Curry and Co. in the game, the Jazz band was able to capture its best win of the season, dropping the Dubs in a 108-103 battle to the final buzzer.

It was like a Christmas miracle came one week early.

After the game, Jazz center Rudy Gobert, who was brilliant in the game, praised the team effort, saying “That’s the way we want to play every night. Move the ball, share the ball and just have fun.”

Outside of Mitchell’s performance, there was a lot of fun to be had.

Slow-Mo’ Joe Ingles led the way for Utah, scoring 20 points, nailing four triples and nabbing three steals. Meanwhile, Jae Crowder was a revelation and the fuel to the team’s fire during key stretches. He finished with 18 points, grabbed 11 boards and hit five, back-breaking threes.

But none were as dominant on both ends of the floor as the Stifle Tower, who added 17 of his own with a game-high 15 boards and four blocked shots. This contest featured Gobert at his best, deterring the opposition from even attacking him on multiple occasions and making them pay when they actually went for it.

After hitting what was then a team-record 19 triples against the Warriors in October, the Jazz hit 16 in this game. And while both games were close during the final moments, there was no Jonas Jerebko tip-in winner to be had this time around.

Those long-range bombs will steal a lot of the headlines coming out of the contest, but the Jazz defense was gigantic in the win. The Jazz held Golden State to 40 percent shooting, 32 percent from distance and posted a defensive rating under 100 against the No. 1 offense in the Association.

If the defense continues to progress this way, the Jazz will continue to find themselves in a lot of ball games, even when their offense fails them.

Getting back to Mitchell, this may have been the worst offensive performance of his career. In his 11th game as a pro last season, he scored eight points on 3-of-21 shooting in a losing effort against the Minnesota Timberwolves. For me, the Warriors game was worse; Mitchell’s shooting and shot selection were both abysmal and he added six turnovers to boot.

That said, his playmaking was on-point at times. Mitchell finished with six dimes on the night and had three big finds late: one to Ingles for a huge momentum three, one to Derrick Favors for a shot at the rim and this finding of Dante Exum for a big-time throwdown —

On nights like this, we need more of that and less renegade-mode action from Mitchell. Shooters need to keep shooting, but not every time down the floor. To his credit, though, you know Mitchell will work to bounce back. After the game, he was already set to head over to the team’s practice facility and get up shots.

So, despite the rough night, there’s no reason for Jazz fens to get down on their star guard.

With the win, the Jazz snapped a two-game skid and improved to 15-17 on the year. Next up for them will be a Friday night road bout with the Portland Trail Blazers.