By Justin Batiste
Utah Jazz take care of business at home
News flash, Donovan Mitchell is the truth. The Utah Jazz as a whole played great, but it’s amazing to see a rookie perform at this level in just his first year. Mitchell finished with a game high 33 points. Mitchell now holds the Jazz record for most points scored by a rookie in a playoff game. Right behind him is the great Karl Malone with 31 points.
Mitchell was constantly on the attack, but not only was he attacking. Mitchell was attacking while under control. Mitchell looks like he’s been here before, and it’s going to be great to see him play in years to come.
With that being said, this Jazz team simply outplayed the Thunder tonight. The Thunder need more of a team contribution. If the Thunder want to make it out this series alive first, they’re going to have to contain Mitchell. Second, play defense and lastly everyone’s offensive play must step up. The Thunder played a descent first half of basketball, but once the Jazz made their run in the second half that was it for the Thunder. The Jazz started getting to the basket easily, and were constantly left open for three point shots. If the Jazz would have made all of their open shots the outcome of this game would have been completely different. This wouldn’t have been just a 17-point win for the Jazz.
Joe Ingles was also a huge reason for the Jazz win tonight. Ingles finished the game with 20 points. Another key to the Jazz win was defense. Defensively, the Jazz were stifling. Paul George finished with 32 points, but he had to work for his 32. The Jazz made everything challenging for the Thunder on the offensive end. The Jazz were the better and tougher team tonight. They did everything they were supposed to do at home. The biggest stat of the night was three-point shooting. The Jazz shot 12-34 from three to the Thunders 5-26. The Thunder couldn’t make shots, and couldn’t stop anybody. That just spells disaster.
The Thunder are now down 3-1. Their next game will be in Oklahoma City on Wednesday. Maybe playing at home will give this team a boost, because they need one. It’s going to be hard to win three games in row against this Jazz team, but it’s possible. We’ll see if the Thunder can get it together and accomplish this difficult task they have at hand.
