Mitchell’s Strong Close Sends Jazz Past Portland

December 27th, 2019 | by Keith Rivas

Mitchell went superstar in the second half of Utah’s TNT-televised win on Thursday night. (Melissa Majchrzak via espn.com)

The Utah Jazz came together for a solid win the day after Christmas, playing at home against their division rivals from Portland. With the 121-115 victory over the Blazers, Utah jumped to 19-12 on the season and currently sits at sixth overall in the Western Conference.

Still without injured point guard Mike Conley, Donovan Mitchell found a way to shine all his own. Thanks to his big second half, the Jazz were able to improve to 12-3 at home so far this season and have also won six of their last seven games.

In 38 minutes on the floor, Mitchell carried the team by dropping a game-high 35 points — 28 of them coming in the second half.

On the other side, Portland stars Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum scored 34 and 25 points, respectively. 

Utah came strong right out of the gate, bullying the Trail Blazers into a 15-point margin after the first 12 minutes. By halftime, the lead had been cut to just ten, but Portland relapsed in the third quarter, giving the Jazz the opportunity to take a 20-point lead into the final frame.

But then the Jazz gave up nearly 40 points in the last quarter, letting the lead shrink to as small as two points in the final minutes, when they should’ve been able to put a boot on their throat at that point.

Even with the fourth quarter problems, Mitchell took control in the second half. If he hadn’t, this could’ve easily been a very different conversation about how the Jazz end up losing by double digits after starting off hot. Overall, Mitchell was as efficient as a star on an underdog team needs to be for them to win on a nightly basis.

He made three of six shots from downtown, went 73% from the free-throw line on 11 attempts, and had nearly double the assists of anyone else on his team with seven.

Thanks to the victory over Portland, their record when playing in Salt Lake City improves to 12-3 on the year. The next game for the Jazz will be on the road as they take on the Clippers in Los Angeles. 

It’ll be crucial for the Jazz to figure out how to win more on the road, where they are just 7-9. Beating Kawhi Leonard and Paul George won’t be an easy feat, but the Jazz are capable of surprising anyone in the league. 

It’s what makes them so dangerous — but they’re great at being their own kryptonite. 

On top of the game in Los Angeles, they’ll be away for six of the first eight games of 2020. They’ll be playing against weaker Eastern Conference teams on that road stretch, with the exception of two road games in New Orleans.

As it stands right now, Utah is only one and a half games behind the Dallas Mavericks to climb up in the standings. They are only two and a half games behind the second best team in the conference — none other than the Denver Nuggets — and they can easily make up some serious ground to kick off the new year.

On to the Clippers!

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