Utah Jazz survive cold stretch from Mitchell
As my colleague Jared Woodcox previously explained, it’s a reassuring sign that the Utah Jazz can survive stretches were either Donovan Mitchell is cold or out of the game.
Last night Mitchell missed all but one of his field goal attempts in the first half, going an ice cold one for seven. Outside of two made free throws he had nothing to show for scoring wise in the first quarter.
Luckily the Jazz had Bojan Bogdanovic and Jordan Clarkson come out of the gates aggressive, and that’s been the formula all season long to preserve Mitchell from over-expending himself. All the Jazz players in the rotation have learned the offensive “blender” system of Quin Snyder, and it shows with their passing.
https://twitter.com/utahjazz/status/1217284286002257920
Clarkson is an underrated playmaker, and I’m impressed he’s immersed in the ball-movement system after being here for less than a month. Mudiay has been good at finding open teammates and kicking out on his drives to the rim.
The biggest reason tonight why the Jazz built up that lead with Mitchell stone-cold was Joe Ingles. He finished the night with 27 points to tie his career high, and bombed six of his eight treys right through the hoop.
Suffice it to say the Jazz are getting contributions across the board from every player, and finding some much needed depth heading into the stretch run of the season.