Utah Jazz stud Donovan Mitchell finally had his first noteworthy game (by his high standards, of course) of the new campaign. Last year's rookie sensation absolutely dominated the Houston Rockets on Wednesday, and after his amazing performance, admitted that he did not have his mind right over the Jazz's past few games.
“I was in my head,” he admitted, per Tim MacMahon of ESPN. “I didn't get much sleep.”
Mitchell does hold himself to some very high standards, and sometimes, this can actually work against him.
“The past few games, I'd been struggling because I'd been kind of pressing the issue,” the Jazz talent said. “I came into [Wednesday's game] with the mindset of just finding the open guy. That was really my biggest thing. Last year in the playoffs, there were games where I got too deep or too whatever, just kind of not making the right plays. To me, just being able to make the right reads early just allowed me to settle down and relax a little bit.
“I always put pressure on myself, whether it was last year at the beginning of the year or whatever, just to be perfect. Obviously, that's impossible.”
Well, that was a short slump for Mitchell. After three “mediocre” games to start the season, the 22-year-old made his return to glory in a huge way, dropping 38 big points against last year's Western Conference runners-up. He went 14-25 from the field, made four three-pointers, and added in five rebounds and seven assists to lead the Jazz to it's second victory of the season.
Prior to Wednesday night's show, the Jazz youngster was shooting an uncharacteristic 34.4 percent from the field. He still averaged 19.0 ppg, so that just proves how big the expectations are for this budding superstar in his sophomore year.
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