Wednesday NBA Roundup: Rockets Learning Jazz Are More Than Just Donovan Mitchell
Donovan Mitchell has carried the Utah Jazz all season, but it'll take more than a rookie's ongoing and seemingly ceiling-less breakout to knock off the Houston Rockets.
Like, say, a stunning performance by a mostly unheralded supporting cast—which the Jazz got during Wednesday's 116-108 win in Game 2 of the Western Conference semifinals Wednesday.
Mitchell was brilliant in the early going, albeit not in the way you'd expect. He was diming up teammates left and right, taking advantage of a strategic Jazz tweak that involved screeners slipping to the hoop before making contact up top. The ingenious switch-defusing tactic wouldn't have mattered if Mitchell, tasked with looking for his own offense all season, hadn't been able to read the floor and deliver the ball to the right spots.
He did—over and over again. His seven assists by halftime made it hard to believe his season high was only nine. He'd finish with 11 helpers on the night, which was kind of a big deal.
Mitchell's momentum took a hit when he picked up his third foul in the second quarter. He was tentative afterward, and when he sat, the Jazz faltered. But their reserves rose to the challenge.
Joe Ingles scored a career-high 27 points, burying seven of his nine attempts from deep.
Alec Burks, who was only recently reinserted into the rotation, supercharged the pace and gave the Jazz the downhill creator and pace-pusher they needed with Mitchell sidelined. He was out of control more than once, as he is wont to do, but it was hard to be critical of his zeal in light of the way he changed the tempo of the contest. He finished with 17 points on 7-of-11 shooting and six assists.
And then there was Dante Exum, whose defense on James Harden, sweet lobs to Rudy Gobert and relentless intensity kept Utah afloat. Nine points on 3-of-8 shooting don't elicit "wows", but this play sure did:
Mitchell, quiet for most of the second half, restored order with a three-play sequence in the fourth quarter that included stoning Harden one-on-one, putting back his own miss with what has to stand as the dunk of the postseason and then finding Ingles for what felt like a dagger three on the left wing.
"I just happened to be up there, so I figured why come down with it?" Mitchell told reporters of the dunk afterward, raising the possibility that he does not experience gravity the same way the rest of us do.
Utah now heads back to Salt Lake City playing pressure-free and riding the tailwind of a huge road victory over the West's top seed. Head coach Quin Snyder's adjustments unlocked the offense, which puts the pressure on the Rockets to counter. In other words, there's a lot to like about the Jazz right now.
That isn't to say Utah is going to win this series. But Game 2 revealed that the Jazz have more pathways to victory than previously believed. The road to an upset starts with Mitchell; that isn't changing. But Wednesday's win showed that in a pinch, Utah has other avenues to success.
Cracks in the Casual Facade
Barely breaking a sweat, Harden took control of the game when Mitchell had to sit down in the second quarter. He scored 17 of his 21 first-half points in the period and finished with a 12-point flourish in the final 2:01 before halftime.
The nonchalance of his dominance was almost disorienting. It always is.
His approach was practically robotic: Check in, stop the bleeding with drives and passes executed at what looks like a 75 percent effort level and reassure everyone watching that, no, the Rockets will not come unglued.
Except...Harden, though fantastic in scoring 32 points (on 22 shots) and handing out 11 assists, got a little more harried than usual. His call-seeking picked up late in the game. There weren't many sequences in which he didn't look plaintively toward an official, hoping for a whistle. He got into a wholly unnecessary tussle with Jae Crowder, who was more than happy to escalate the intensity.
It was a small thing, and it may be one that ultimately doesn't matter. But for a player like Harden and a team like the Rockets, both of whom have recent postseason histories of, shall we say, "competitive frailty," this bears watching.
Because if Harden, who never looks concerned, starts to evince something that looks like a precursor to panic, you can't ignore it. Not with his and his team's history.
Don't worry, though. Harden seemed plenty chilled out by the time postgame media availability rolled around.
This Has to Stop
Really, both of you?
You know what? Throw them both out. I don't care. Set the precedent that trying to fool referees by falling down is an ejection-worthy offense. We're not playing soccer out here, fellas.
To be clear, Harden's ability to anticipate opponents' movements and draw legitimate fouls on drives is incredible. We should celebrate it. He's on some next-level, borderline mind control anticipation stuff. But that isn't what this is about. This is about the scourge of unrepentant flopping. Enough, already.
Somebody Guard Joe Ingles!
I mean, the guy hit 44 percent of his threes this year. He was even better than that when left wide open, hitting 47.5 percent of his deep attempts when a defender wasn't within six feet.
And now, in the playoffs, you're going to pay him so little attention that he knocks down more uncontested treys than anyone else? Ingles' barrage can hardly be termed a surprise. This is what he's done all year.
The Rockets don't have to make wholesale changes after their Game 2 loss, but they'd do well to keep better track of Ingles. A shooter this good can't be ignored.
