After this win, which puts them up 3-1 in the series, it’s looking likely that the Jazz will advance to the next round of the ‘offs. I admit, I did not see this coming. There’s been weird stuff going on with them all season, from Mike Conley metaphorically disappearing to Rudy Gobert getting the whole season cancelled to Bojan Bogdanovic literally disappearing to… whatever it is that Emmanuel Mudiay is up to these days. All that stuff and more combined into one conclusion: that they were going to disappoint in the playoffs.
Now look at them. It’s the Nuggets who are disappointing, and the Jazz look solid. Donovan Mitchell is obviously a big part of things turning out the way that they are (is there a record for most 50-burgers in a single series? If there is I bet Wilt has it), but don’t discount the contributions of the role-players! I’m thinking of Jordan Clarkson here, who is basically Mitchell but coming off the bench and with less usage.
We’ve seen teams/games in the past where Clarkson is the number-one primo banana on offense, and usually, the results haven’t been super good. So it’s not like I’m advocating for an increased diet of Clarkson’s banana-ness. I’m advocating for the situation to stay exactly as it is, with Mitchell dominating the starters, and Clarkson coming in to dominate whatever bench scrubs the Nuggets have stupidly put in the game. Bench play is generally less important in the playoffs, but here’s the deal: once you’ve come in off the bench, they don’t actually have to take you out. You can just keep playing, even when you’re surrounded by starters on both teams. A weird loophole, but one Lou Williams keeps using to win 6MOTY of the Year awards.