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DENVER — Donovan Mitchell told the Denver crowd to settle down. Then he told them again. And again.
Denver kept coming. Mitchell kept answering.
Mitchell drove through the Denver defense for an uncontested layup. He dribbled around the paint and scooped the ball off the glass for a bucket. And then Mitchell hit a step-back mid-range jumper. Each time as he made his way back down the court, Mitchell gestured to the crowd to calm down.
Mitchell’s scoring spree — along with a massive Rudy Gobert block on Nikola Jokic in the closing minutes— allowed the Jazz to withstand Denver’s final surge in an impressive 111-104 victory over the Nuggets at Pepsi Center on Thursday.
“There comes a certain place and time you have to make those plays, my teammates look to me to make those plays,” Mitchell told TNT.
And he made them. Mitchell led the Jazz with 24 points and his six straight points in the final two minutes of the contest was the reason Utah withstood Denver.
Utah wasn’t supposed to win this game. The Jazz were on the second night of a back-to-back, they were playing the best home team in the NBA, and all of their three point guards were out with injury.
That’s why it was a surprise when Utah played arguably its best quarter of the season, outscoring the Nuggets 33-15 in the second quarter. And why it was a little shocking to see the Jazz lead grow to 18 points in the third. But why it was almost expected to see the Nuggets come fighting back in the fourth.
Mitchell’s clutch scoring was so important because of what was happening on the other end.
Will Barton hit a driving floater. Mitchell answered with a layup.
Jamal Murray hit a 3-pointer. Mitchell hit a scoop shot
Paul Millsap rattled in a 3-pointer. Mitchell hit a step-back jumper.
But Mitchell was far from the only hero on Thursday for the shorthanded Jazz.
With 50 seconds remaining, Jokic put the ball up high to get it above Gobert. But he didn’t get it high enough. Gobert jumped up and used his massive reach to swat the ball out of the air.
That play summed up how the matchup between the two had gone on Thursday. If the Jazz need some marketing material for Gobert’s Defensive Player of the Year candidacy, all they will need to do is cut up some plays from Thursday’s game.
Gobert was a huge reason that Jokic — an MVP candidate — shot just 5-of-15 from the field. And his defense on Jokic was why Utah was able to hold down the explosive Denver offense for much of the night. Gobert had 16 points, eight rebounds and four blocks in the game.
But even with how well the Jazz had played, things looked bleak early in the fourth quarter.
A Denver run had cut a double-digit Jazz lead to just five points and Mitchell had just limped to bench grabbing his left hip.
Kyle Korver and Derrick Favors came to the rescue.
In the span of 90 seconds, Korver hit three 3-pointers and Derrick Favors delivered a slam over Mason Plumlee. It was a 13-0 run by the Jazz and helped restore order.
“We just kept fighting,” Favors said. “Just kept playing hard.”
Korver finished with 22 points on 6-of-10 3-point shooting. Favors had 11 points and 11 rebounds in the victory.
Joe Ingles had 16 points and 10 assists as the Jazz’s primary ball-handler, Royce O’Neale played a team-high 40 minutes and provided some stellar defense on the Denver guards, and Thabo Sefolosha hit three straight 3-pointers in the second as part of Utah’s game-changing quarter.
“The odds were stacked against us this game,” Favors said. “Coming into Denver, it’s always hard to get a win here. But we just played hard and started making shots, stayed connected defensively and got the win.”
