The Utah Jazz balanced the series with an away win at the Oklahoma City Thunder. After falling late in the third quarter, rookie Donovan Mitchell turned up the heat and shocked the Thunder Big Three. The Jazz won with 102:95 (BOXSCORE).
As in game one, the jazz began furiously and established a leadership early on. OKC had big problems to wind up the offense. After all, Carmelo Anthony could contribute a little with 10 fast points. However, Melo had an unfavorable matchup with Derrick Favors, the Power Forward was always on the spot and generated a lot of offensive rebounds for his colors (8).
So the guests had the game well under control until well into the third quarter, as the stricken Donovan Mitchell also presented the Thunder with problems. But the hosts could then rely on the starpower and, led by Russell Westbrook, Paul George and Melo, made a 19-0 run (77:67). This was followed by the show of Mitchell, who almost single-handedly shot Utah back into the game. 12 points of the 17:2 run went to his account and heralded an exciting final phase.
A threesome by Ricky Rubio took the lead again four minutes before the end (92:89), shortly after Steven Adams fouled. The New Zealander was visibly struck anyway, played almost exclusively with one arm and had some problems with Rudy Gobert under the boards.
The Thunder had huge problems scoring again in the final phase, because the Jazz didn’t pay any attention to Jerami Grant in the corner. Mitchell drove to 99:93 instead, Grant countered on the other side. But there was only one minute left to play and Melo bet two three on the ring. The Thunder had to foul and chose Gobert, who did not show any nerves and extended the lead to 6 points again. George also couldn’t shorten from downtown, the Jazz actually took the important away win after a 10-point gap late in the third quarter.
Mitchell was the top scorer at Utah with 28 points, Rubio (21) sunk five threesomes. Favors (20, 16 rebounds) played a strong double double like Gobert (13, 15 boards). For OKC the stars had ups and downs, even though Westbrook (19, 7/19 FG, 9 rebounds, 13 assists), George (18, 6/19 FG) and Anthony (17, 6/18 FG) again collected the most points. In the fourth quarter, the Big Three missed all 14 attempts to throw.