NBA Playoff Power Rankings Week 3: Miami Heat and Raptors causing chaos
By Corey Rausch
Last Week: Lost to Denver 119-107, Lost to Denver 80-78
The Utah Jazz had a very solid season that somehow ended in a blown 3-1 series lead against the Denver Nuggets. After looking like they had the match up figured out, things turned and they were never able to fully recover.
Donovan Mitchell acquitted himself well if nothing else. He averaged a blistering 36.3 points, 5.0 rebounds, 4.9 assists and 1.0 steals per game on shooting splits of .529/.516/.948. That level of efficiency is mind-blowing and he was the leading scorer of the first round of the playoffs.
For being so well-coached, blowing this kind of series lead for a team that came into the season with aspirations of much more is hard to fathom. Sure they were missing players, but they were missing them when they went up 3-1 too.
Changes will likely be coming to Salk Lake City sooner rather than later. The rumblings have been there since the shutdown of the season and will certainly grow louder after losing in the first round of the playoffs in back to back seasons.
Mike Conley’s contract has also become something of an albatross in the final season of his deal. Imagining a world where they move on from him and Rudy Gobert and retool around Mitchell is not so far-fetched. At least the first six games of this series were beautiful basketball.