Utah Jazz dud: Donovan Mitchell
Donovan Mitchell stormed out of the gates last night, scoring 6 points within the first 4 minutes of the game. He just didn’t get very far past those gates.
The best scorer on the Utah Jazz finished the game with 13 points, shooting a reasonably efficient 5/12 from the field and 1/3 from beyond the arc. If anything, Mitchell may deserve credit for a measured performance. It’s entirely possible that he recognized that it was Bojan Bogdanovic’s (and, to a lesser extent, Jordan Clarkson’s) night, opting to give his teammates space to operate.
Nonetheless, if we’re forced to identify a dud from this contest, it’s got to be the guy who scored almost 12 points fewer than his season average (24.6 points per game). There’s no reason to be concerned here: Mitchell played 22 minutes in a blowout in which his teammates were hot.
It was still a dud of a performance. It just happens to be one that Utah Jazz fans should have extreme confidence in Mitchell to bounce back from.
Alternatively, there might not have been a dud in this game. “Utah Jazz: 2 studs from demolition of Philadelphia 76ers” just makes for a less catchy headline.
The Utah Jazz may have been widely expected to win this contest, but they still deserve credit for taking care of business. They’ll square off with the Toronto Raptors in their next game, tomorrow night.