That’s exactly where Donovan Mitchell is at the moment, somewhere between still flustered from his first two performances in this first-round playoff series and anxious to revert back to his usual unique mesmerizing self. The 22-year-old Jazz guard has let himself have it, too. He put his hand up after the Jazz lost Game 2 to the Houston Rockets by 20 Wednesday and said he didn’t show up and that it couldn’t happen again.
He’s not wrong. It can’t happen. Two days later, Mitchell hasn’t perked up. Not one bit.
“Obviously you really can’t get any lower than the effort and the performance that I gave,” he said Friday after practice.