Utah Jazz: Mitchell-Conley duo make inauspicious debut vs Bucks

The Utah Jazz faced their first NBA competition of the preseason, the Milwaukee Bucks, in a game that saw the debut of the Donovan Mitchell-Mike Conley backcourt.

After months of anticipation, Utah Jazz fans caught their first glimpse of the much-ballyhooed Donovan Mitchell–Mike Conley starting backcourt on Wednesday night, and it was…something.

I’ll preface this statement by saying it went down in limited minutes during game No. 2 of preseason play, but, nonetheless, the duo’s big debut definitely left something to be desired.

Squaring off against their first NBA-level competition of the exhibition slate after wiping the floor at the Viv with the NBL’s Adelaide 36ers, Mitchell, Conley and the rest of the Jazz band found themselves on the opposite end of a beatdown at the hands of the Bucks. In the end, Utah fell 133-99 in Milwaukee. Woof.

The Jazz led by one point briefly in the first quarter; beyond that it was a total thrashing that saw the home team led by as many 40 points.

For his part, Mitchell looked like a more efficient version of his usual self, hitting 5-of-9 shots from the floor and scoring 14 points in 17 minutes of play. Conley, however, scuffled. The former Memphis Grizzlies point-man was 0-for-6 from the floor with no assists and two turnovers in his first action with his new club.

He wasn’t the only Jazzman to struggle, though.

Bojan Bogandovic, the team’s big free agent acquisition this past summer also logged an oh-fer, missing all eight of his field goal attempts and matching Conley’s team-worst minus-26 in the plus/minus department.

As a team, the Jazz were misfiring all night long, hitting just 37 percent of their shots overall, 21 percent from distance and committing 23 turnovers.

Meanwhile, the Bucks ripped the nets to the tune of 57 percent shooting and 42 percent from distance as Giannis Antetokounmpo wracked up 22 points, 11 boards and four assists in light duty.

All in all, it was an ugly display for the Jazz, but nothing to fret over at this juncture of the preseason. The team was working in a lot of new pieces, some shots and reads within the offense were missed and, frankly, the Bucks did some things defensively in the screen-roll to bust up Utah’s action.

These are things that will be ironed out over the coming weeks.

As for Mitchell and Conley, I have no doubts (and nor should you!) that they’re going to be just as good as advertised once the real games start and they develop a flow together.

If there was a bright spot for the Jazz in the game, it was the play of third-year big man Tony Bradley, who dropped 17 points and snagged 10 boards in the contest.

Bradley’s hands/ability to receive the ball down low are a work in progress in that young Rudy Gobert-like way. However, he’s absolutely making an early case to get his first real bite at the apple as a rotation player this season.

With the loss, the blue, green and gold crew dropped to 1-1 in preseason play. Next up will be a road bout with former longtime Jazzman Derrick Favors and the New Orleans Pelicans on Friday.