Mitchell Scores 46 as the Jazz Hit 50 Wins

Mitchell’s career night propelled the Jazz to 50 wins. (Melissa Majchrzak via ESPN.com)

In their regular season home finale, the Utah Jazz finished strong to pull away from the Denver Nuggets, 118-108. Though they wavered here and there, including briefly trailing early in the second half, they played with force throughout the night and earned their 50th win of the season.

Donovan Mitchell tied his career high of 46 points and showed he has earned his place among elite guards and closers in the league. Derrick Favors returned to the lineup and teamed up with Rudy Gobert to much up Denver’s offense and cause a frustrated Nikola Jokic to foul out after just 16 minutes of game play. 

The Jazz ultimately won by closing out the fourth quarter strong, riding a 16-2 run in the closing minutes to a 10-point win. 

The Playoff Seeding Strategy

Prior to the game, some fans and pundits debated whether the Jazz should rest some players to prepare for the playoffs and finagle the standings to produce a an optimal first round opponent. There may have been some logic in doing so. That said, I think the Jazz made the right decision to come out and play. 

Staying away from a playoff matchup with Houston was one important reason for the Jazz to go for the home win against the Denver Nuggets, but it likely wasn’t the motivating factor for this team. First, it would be impossible to manipulate the standings with other games still pending, and in fact Houston would ultimately lose to OKC after leading by 15. But mostly, the Jazz as a team and organization don’t really operate that way. With only two games left in the regular season prior to this game, the Jazz prioritized sharpening their execution and playoff readiness.

That’s not to say that teams never lose games in an attempt to tinker with the playoff bracket. Earlier this week, three Denver stars sat and another three quality rotation players were pulled from a winnable road game, an apparent attempt to throw the game and try and punt Houston to the opposite side of the playoff bracket. (Nuggets coach Mike Malone has since denied that he made those decisions to influence the standings.)

For now, it might have worked. Houston will finish fourth unless one of Denver or Portland loses tonight.

Best approach is just to play

While the Nuggets may have successfully thwarted a second-round Rockets matchup, they still have to get to the second round. Perhaps due to the loss against Portland, the Nuggets squad ended up not having much life through the game, outside of a few players such as young guards Malik Beasley and Monte Morris. Jamal Murray put up 22 points, but on a significant number of shots and was largely inefficient. Jokic scored just two before fouling out.

Four Jazz starters scored in double figures and both Gobert and Joe Ingles had double-doubles: 20 points and 10 rebounds for the former, 10 points and 13 assists for Ingles. 

Aside from the fact that playing with force and dominating the game is an excellent way to prepare for playoff intensity against a quality opponent, the Jazz also prefer to carry the mindset that it doesn’t matter who they play because they will have to beat quality teams to advance in the playoffs anyway. If you’re going to win the championship, you’re going to have to beat the best teams. 

With this win, the Jazz either proved they are ready to compete with anyone — or perhaps they simply proved that the Nuggets are a relatively weak 2-seed. Utah may just be a bad matchup for Denver, but it won’t matter this season; the odds of a 2019 Utah-Denver playoff series are extremely small, as it would not happen until the conference finals.