Four studs and 1 dud from Utah Jazz win against Thunder

It feels odd that in a game where the Utah Jazz handed the potentially lottery bound Oklahoma City Thunder a narrow 6-point loss, we’d have so many players to praise, and so few to criticize. Nonetheless, anyone who watched this game would have to concede that the Jazzmen were executing their gameplan. The Thunder were simply doing the same. 

At 6-12, this Thunder squad is a little better than advertised. Even with star guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander on the sidelines with a right ankle injury, this is a scrappy, well-coached young group. Nonetheless, solid play (almost) across the board led to a much deserved Jazz victory.

Here are a whopping 4 studs and 1 dud from last night’s contest.

Utah Jazz dud: Donovan Mitchell

Let’s start by getting the negative out of the way. Donovan Mitchell turned in his second subpar performance in a row in this game.

You wouldn’t know it if you’d tuned into this game down the stretch. Mitchell’s performance in the clutch was exemplary. He missed a floater, collected his own offensive rebound and hit a tough inside basket against the longer Josh Giddey to create a 105-101 lead with 54.7 seconds remaining. He followed that up with a midrange dagger to push the score to 109-104 with 13 seconds remaining.

The problem is, he effectively stunk up the rest of this contest.

All told, the star scoring guard finished this contest with 13 points on 6/16 shooting from the field, including 1/7 from three-point range. There’s nothing to worry about here: Mitchell is generally too talented for Utah Jazz fans to worry about. However, we’re forced to acknowledge that this performance did not meet the expectations we have of him.