The Utah Jazz have reached the second round of the playoffs thanks to a furious Donovan Mitchell. In the 96:91 victory (BOXSCORE) against Oklahoma City Thunder, the rookie scored 38 points. The Thunder won’t hit anything in the final phase.
A shock message struck the jazz at the very beginning of the game. Ricky Rubio, who played so well in the end, had to be treated for thigh problems and could not return to the match. Did this have an impact on jazz? Quite!
Utah seemed consternated and a little unimaginative on the offensive. The Thunder, on the other hand, naturally capitalized in the form of Russell Westbrook. Oklahoma City’s Point Guard received little support from Carmelo Anthony (7 PKT, 3/7 FG, 3 REB) and Paul George (5 PKT, 2/16 FG, 8 AST, 6 TO), but alternatively the Thunder wanted to send Steven Adams offensively in mismatches. This worked properly at first.
OKC should have moved towards the half-time break with a much bigger lead, but the opportunities were handled very sloppily. It was followed by something: The Jazz compensated for the break with a late run thanks to an acrobatic layup by Donovan Mitchell.
Mitchell seemed to have acquired a taste for it. The rookie started the second half of the game at full speed and started with the first ten points of jazz in the second round. After all, 22 points Mitchells (38 PKT, 14/26 FG, 5 TO) were in the third quarter, many of them highly spectacular. The run of jazz was only kept in check by Westbrook’s efforts.
RW0 (46 PKT, 18/43 FG, 5 AST, 10 REB, 5 TO) understood that he had to do it alone again this evening. Movement in the Thunder offensive had rarity value. The isolation attempts increased and so the Thunder stiffened more and more, the gap became bigger, even when Mitchell had to take a seat on the bench due to foul problems.
Shortly before the end the Thunder started another run, in which the pick’n’ roll with Westbrook and Adams (19 PKT, 9/11 FG, 15 REB) brought success. With three points behind, however, the Thunder missed it despite numerous possibilities and offensive rebounds to equalize the game and possibly send it into overtime. In Paul George’s final triathlon, a foul whistle would have been perfectly reasonable. Mitchell brought the game home from the line after OKC had not fouled completely incomprehensibly for 10 seconds.
In Jazz, Derrick Favors (13 PKT), Joe Ingles (12 PKT), Rudy Gobert (12 PKT) and Alec Burks (11 PKT) also scored in double figures.
The Jazz now meet the top seeded Houston Rockets in the Western Conference Semifinals. Game one will start on Sunday (21.30 on SPOX and DAZN) in Texas.