Utah Jazz guard Donovan Mitchell lit up the Denver Nuggets in Game 1 of their first-round matchup, posting a career-high 57 points in the overtime affair.

Mitchell's heroics weren't quite enough, though, as Denver prevailed 135-125, boosted by a stellar performance from Jamal Murray. The Nuggets guard dropped 36 points on 13-for-20 shooting, including 6-for-9 from 3-point range. He also dished out nine assists.

Murray was obviously in the zone, especially late in the game. In fact, he was so locked in that he was unaware of Mitchell's massive point total, despite the fact that Murray spent much of the game checking Mitchell.

During Murray's postgame on-court interview, upon learning that Mitchell ended up with 57 points, Murray could only exhaustively exhale and give the Jazz star props:

Mitchell shot 19-of-33 from the field, made six 3-pointers and went 15-for-15 from the charity stripe. He also tallied nine rebounds and seven assists in 43 minutes.

Besides Murray, the Nuggets were buoyed by 29 points and 10 rebounds from Nikola Jokic, and 19 points off the bench from Jerami Grant. Denver shot 51.6% from the field and 53.7% (22-for-41) from 3-point range.

Mitchell and the Jazz had opportunities to win the game, but they noticeably missed the presence of Mike Conley, who left the bubble for the birth of his son. Utah head coach Quin Snyder surprisingly started wing Juwan Morgan in Conley's wake, leaving Mitchell and Joe Ingles to handle point guard duties.

Morgan had only played 21 games on the season without a start prior to Monday's game. He scored three points in 25 minutes.

Murray and Mitchell will continue their highly entertaining matchup in Game 2 on Wednesday.