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SALT LAKE CITY — Donovan Mitchell entered the history books Monday.
His 57-point performance in Game 1 against the Denver Nuggets was a career-high; it was a Utah Jazz playoff record, eclipsing Karl Malone's 50-point game back in 2000; and it was the third-highest playoff scoring performance in NBA playoff history, trailing only Elgin Baylor (61) and Michael Jordan (63).
He was the youngest player to score 50 in a postseason game since Jordan scored his 63 in a loss to the Boston Celtics way back in 1986.
Unfortunately for Mitchell, his big game had more in common with Jordan’s than the two being young.
The Jazz fell 135-125 to the Nuggets in overtime in Game 1 of its first-round series on Monday' as Mitchell became just the eighth player in NBA history to score 50 or more points and lose a playoff game.
"It's Game 1; it's one loss; it counts the same," Mitchell said. "It's tough to lose the first game, but now we kind of see what their approach is and, obviously, they see ours, but there are a lot of things that we can control. I kind of put a little bit on myself for the 8-second violation."
Mitchell was nearly flawless on Monday. He scored his record-setting 57 points on 19-of-33 shooting and was 13-of-13 from the foul line, including two free throws near the end of regulation that ended up sending the game to overtime. He added nine rebounds and seven assists.
"It was a heck of a night for Donovan, an elite performance on his part," Jazz head coach Quin Snyder said.
But there was a major blemish. With 1:46 left in regulation, Mitchell committed an 8-second violation that he admitted changed everything.
The Jazz were holding on to a 4-point lead as Mitchell casually dribbled the ball up the court. Rudy Gobert had got a defensive rebound on the previous possession and the ball was knocked away from him and out of bounds. So when Mitchell took the inbound pass, he only had around six seconds to get it across halfcourt — something he didn’t realize. He walked the ball up the court — and his time ran out.
"That's my fault as a leader and as a point guard," Mitchell said. "That's terrible on my part. ... I was really just taking my time walking it up. I gotta be more aware. I think that was a crucial part of the game."
It was a dead ball turnover —usually not the worst thing in the world. But on the ensuing Denver possession, Jamal Murray drilled a 3-pointer, and the momentum quickly swung to the Nuggets.
"That really changed the entire game, that sequence right there," Mitchell said.
It was the first of three straight shots made by Murray; the third of which gave Denver the lead. And it was just the start of Murray's heroics shots in crunch time. In the final 3:13 of the fourth quarter and overtime, Murray was 8-of-10 and scored 20 of his 36 points.
It took that kind of effort to beat Mitchell on Monday.
Mitchell announced something special may be coming in the second quarter when he dribbled by Nikola Jokic and went up and under Jerami Grant for a double-clutch dunk. After that, the plays just kept coming.
In the fourth quarter alone, Mitchell had 22 points on 6-of-7 shooting. He stepped into threes, dribbled through traffic with acrobatic layups, and hit a quick step back midrange that tied the game late. His aggressive play earned him eight trips to the foul line, including two with 22 seconds left, to tie the game 115-115.
Gobert forced Jokic to miss a short hook shot at the end of regulation to send the game into overtime.
Gobert finished with 17 points, seven rebounds and four blocks. Jokic, meanwhile, had 29 points and 10 rebounds as he continued his stretch of big games against the Jazz. Jokic, though, only had three assists as the Jazz’s focus to take his passing game proved effective.
Utah committed four straight turnovers in overtime, which allowed Denver to build a quick 8-point advantage. In the overtime session alone, Murray had 10 points and two assists — including two back-breaking 3-pointers.
"You're not going to stop Jamal Murray; you're not going to stop Jokic," Snyder said. "So you just have to do as good a job as you can. And there will be some adjustments if they're appropriate, but when guys are making step-back threes with a hand in their face, that's tough — you tip your hat.”
The Nuggets shot over 50% from 3-point range, hitting on 22-of-41 shots. That’s a big increase from the regular season when they averaged making 11-of-30 3-point shots. The Jazz, who were the league’s best 3-point shooting team, were just 16-of-47 from deep Monday.
The optimist would say Denver isn’t going to outshoot Utah like that again. On the other hand, how can Mitchell replicate his performance?
Game 2 is on Wednesday.
