'Good To Go': Jazz Star Donovan Mitchell Will Play Game 6 vs. Mavs
After Utah Jazz star Donovan Mitchell limped to the locker room late in Game 5, there were questions about his potential availability for Thursday's possible elimination game against the Dallas Mavericks.
Mitchell underwent an MRI on his hamstring and the results came back negative. He's listed as having a bilateral quadriceps contusion. With the soreness being related to bruising as opposed to a pulled hamstring, he's declared himself "good to go" for Game 6.
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"I'm good to go," Mitchell said. "I'm ready to go."
Mitchell had a struggling performance in Game 5 in what ended up as a 102-77 loss for the Jazz. He finished with just nine points — marking his first-ever single-digit playoff scoring performance. He was contained to just 4-15 shooting from the floor and missed all seven of his 3s.
As a team, the Jazz shot an abysmal 37.7 percent from the floor and 3-30 from beyond the arc. Utah will need much greater execution to defend their home floor in Game 6 to keep their chances of advancing to the Western Conference Semifinals alive by forcing a Game 7.
For the Jazz. the stakes are high for Game 6. A loss would put an end to their 2021-22 season, but there's more to it than that. Utah has faced significant speculation about the future of their roster. A first-round exit would only magnify those concerns.
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"I don't want to go home. … I don't think any of us want to go home," Mitchell said. "Knowing the character in the locker room, all we can do is compete with all we got. We are going to go out there and fight."
The Mavericks have even been connected to Rudy Gobert as a potential trade suitor in the offseason if the Jazz were to undergo significant changes. It's also been stated that Gobert would be the more likely of the two stars to be dealt under such circumstances.
The Mavericks understand they must come out with the same approach in terms of intensity and focus in Game 6 — knowing the Jazz will be desperate to keep their season alive.
