The Triple Team: Jazz move to second round thanks to Donovan Mitchell's 38 points


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SALT LAKE CITY — Three thoughts on the Utah Jazz's 96-91 win over the Oklahoma City Thunder from KSL.com's Jazz beat writer, Andy Larsen.

1. Donovan Mitchell rescues sluggish Jazz offense with best quarter in Jazz history

The Jazz faced a lot of adversity in Game 6. Point guard Ricky Rubio left Game 6 in the first quarter with a strained hamstring. The Thunder's switching defense was working just as well as it did in Game 5, again limiting the Jazz to 28 points in 20 minutes. The whole team struggled to make threes and layups: they were shooting just 5-13 from within three feet of the rim, 3-12 from the 3-point line, and 4-7 from the free-throw line.

And then Donovan Mitchell had a chat with Jazz head coach Quin Snyder. "We're going to win this game, and you're going to go off," Snyder said, according to Mitchell: "Word for word, that's what he said."

Perhaps because of that talk, Mitchell hit two layups in the final three minutes of the first half, including the final one to tie the game going into halftime.

That was only an appetizer for the feast he would put up in the third. Mitchell scored 22 points in the third quarter, scoring from all three levels. His toolset of moves is just ridiculous, and he actually uses each to set up the next.

He starts the second half with this play, where the Jazz run Ingles on a cut across the play, disguising Favors coming up to screen at the free-throw line. At first, it actually looks like he's rejecting the screen, but Favors gets contact. Then, it's a tough finish for anyone but Mitchell at the rim, but his long arms allow him to go under Adams and finish.

This next video was my favorite play. Mitchell gets isolated on Carmelo Anthony, but he knows help is coming. So he spins on Anthony, getting him off-balance, then pumpfakes Anthony out of the way, then leaps to go for the layup. Paul George is there to block his shot, so on his way down, he scoops it underneath him. It's just ridiculously athletic: Mitchell fits three moves in the course of less than a second.

As you can see, Mitchell's gone to the middle of the floor twice. So what does he do the next time? Well, he fakes going inside with an in-and-out dribble, causing George to hesitate, then drives past him for an and-one layup.

Mitchell added three 3s in the quarter as well. This one was the most impressive one, where he's almost mid-jab step when he decided to elevate. Anthony is still on his heels. If you can, pause the video at five seconds to see the separation and clear line of sight Mitchell has generated for himself with the move.

Mitchell scored 38 points overall, including 22 in the third quarter. That's the highest scoring quarter by any Jazz player in a playoff game, ever.

Friends, Mitchell is a superstar. He just was the best offensive player in a series featuring Russell Westbrook (last year's MVP), Paul George (a three-time All-NBA winner), and Carmelo Anthony (okay, not good anymore, but he once was the league's scoring leader). It's not "he's going to be really good,” or “he could be a top player in the league." Donovan Mitchell is that guy, right now. With him, the Jazz's ceiling is sky-high.

2. Ricky Rubio gets hurt, but bench steps up

Ricky Rubio leaving the game after just seven minutes on the floor looked to be a nightmare scenario for the Jazz. After all, with Rubio on the court, the Jazz outscored the Thunder by 9.7 points per 100 possessions in this series. With him off the court, they got outscored by 7.5 points per 100.

That's when the Jazz called on the bench. The first nominee was Dante Exum, who struggled mightily in only three minutes, with one turnover and a couple of ill-advised drives.

So Snyder went further down his bench and asked for Alec Burks to come into the game. Burks has yet to play a significant minute in this series, but he came in and was pretty successful at attacking the switch, getting to the FT line and hitting his outside shots, too. While there were some downside "AB moments," he ended up scoring 11 points on 4-8 shooting with only one turnover.

"We don't win that game without Alec. There's no question about it," Snyder said.

Royce O'Neale was also great, playing 18 big minutes. He played tough defense on George, and was a big factor in George's 2-16 shooting night. He also had a couple of nice plays in transition, including a steal and layup to put a temporary halt to an OKC run.

The Jazz haven't always gotten great play from their bench, in this series nor in the second half of the year. Exum hasn't been consistent, Burks is frustrating on both ends, O'Neale's and Jonas Jerebko's shot has come and go, as has Jae Crowder's decision making. But on Friday night, the Jazz got just enough from the bench.

Rubio, by the way, suffered a strained hamstring, according to Snyder. He'll be evaluated and the Jazz will release an update to his status prior to Game 1 Sunday afternoon.

3. Jazz limit the Thunder on offense

A big key to the Jazz's win Friday night: forcing the Thunder to take the shots that they wanted.

Paul George shot 2-16, in one of the worst games of his career, regular season or postseason. Here's his shot chart:

The Triple Team: Jazz move to second round thanks to Donovan Mitchell's 38 points

That's a lot of missed mid-range shots. And you can see how easy George was to predict: nearly all of his shots came from the right side of the floor (he did shoot better from that side during the regular season, for what it's worth). The Jazz will take that shot chart from George, though, and especially his free-throw numbers. He shot only two, made only one.

Russell Westbrook scored 46 points, but shot 43 shots in order to do so, including 19 threes. That's an incredible amount of shots: the most any player took during this regular season was 37 (Bradley Beal). Only Kobe Bryant in his 60-point, mildly farcical final game has taken more shots than that in the last 10 years.

Forcing Westbrook to rely on his jump shot, rather than on getting free throws or getting to the rim, has been the key to effective defense for the Jazz. 19 threes, 16 mid-range shots ... that's what the Jazz would like. And while Westbrook had a relatively effective shooting night, he didn't score more than 1 point per possession when you take into account his five turnovers. That's great.

The best thing the Jazz did was keep the Thunder off the free-throw line. The Thunder weren't able to draw fouls effectively all night, and only shot 13 free throws all game. That's a 7.8 percent free-throw rate, in the second percentile for all games this season. That's a major win for the Jazz.

The Jazz have a tough task to keep that going in Game 1 against Houston on Sunday. No team is more crafty at drawing free throws than Houston, and no players more crafty than Chris Paul and James Harden. That will need to be at the top of the Jazz's scouting report again for the Jazz to have a chance to steal Game 1.

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