The crowd’s roar was the only thing that stopped Donovan Mitchell on Monday night.
The Utah Jazz’s star rookie had carved up the Oklahoma City Thunder defense for four quarters, finishing with a game-high 33 points. It was a playoff record for a Jazz rookie, knocking down none other than Karl Malone one spot in the franchise list. And as Mitchell stood on the confetti-covered court for his walk-off interview, the applause left him speechless for a moment.
“Y’all are unbelievable,” he finally said.
Plenty of people are saying the same thing about Mitchell.
“I couldn’t have envisioned this,” Mitchell’s father, Donovan Mitchell Sr., said Monday night as he waited outside the Jazz locker room. “But it doesn’t get old watching him and the smile on his face.”
The elder Mitchell sat with his son for lunch at a Salt Lake PF Chang’s on Sunday afternoon and the two marveled at everything that had happened over the past year. Mitchell Sr. was shaking his head in disbelief again a day later as he talked with Jazz legends John Stockton and Mark Eaton about his son’s performance in Game 4.
“I used to watch these guys play and now here I am taking pictures with them and they’re talking about my son,” Mitchell Sr. said. “It’s awesome.
“It’s just great hearing people cheering for him. The excitement they have for him. I feel good for him knowing that he’s out here, in a good place, in a good spot, with a good team and a good fanbase.”
Mitchell is leading the Jazz in scoring with an average of 27.5 points per contest through four playoff games. His 110 points in the series are the fifth most for a rookie through his first four postseason contests, according to Elias Sports, behind only Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Michael Jordan and Lou Hudson.
And Mitchell’s 36 fourth-quarter points in this series are the most by any player so far in this year’s NBA playoffs.
Asked for his thoughts on setting a Jazz rookie playoff record with 33 points Monday, Mitchell demurred.
“For me, I’ve been saying this all year, I’m not really trying to think about all that right now,” he said. “We’ve got bigger things to worry about right now. I think the biggest thing is I’m just focused on the task at hand. If I start to think about the individual stuff, all the stuff that doesn’t really matter to the team, that’s when you kind of lose your head and you don’t give your all for your teammates. …
“It’s definitely an honor to have another rookie record. There’s no doubt about that. But we have one more game, so I’m more focused on that.”
Hoops down under
Joe Ingles thinks Andrew Bogut has enough left in the tank to play in the NBA for a few more seasons. That’s why he’s so happy to see the former Utes star decide to continue his basketball career back home in Australia.
“It’s great for our league,” Ingles said this week. “For him to help build basketball in Australia is pretty awesome.”
Ingles, 30, said he hopes to be involved with Australia’s National Basketball League, where he started his professional career, whenever his time in the NBA is done.
“I’ll definitely be involved somehow or some way,” Ingles said. “In the back of my mind, I’ve thought about playing.”
Follow @@aaronfalk