Friday 27 December 2019 10:13, UK
Donovan Mitchell gave the credit to his team-mates and said Utah's offense is clicking after scoring 35 points in the Jazz’s 121-115 win over the Portland Trail Blazers.
Mitchell scored 28 of his points in the second half and Joe Ingles added 26 as the Jazz improved their home record to 12-3.
Portland cut a 23-point deficit in the third quarter all the way down to one in the fourth quarter, but Mitchell's three-pointer with 1:08 remaining put Utah back up 115-110.
The Jazz sealed the victory at the free throw line by making six free throws in the final 18 seconds. Mitchell made 3-of-4 at the line in that span.
"I not going to lie, I was really mad I missed that last one. I was just trying to seal the game," Mitchell said in an on-court interview after the game.
"For me, my team-mates trust me to make plays down the stretch. I go in there and try to do my thing. Bojan (Bogdanovic) found me. Rudy (Gobert) is the two-time Defensive Player of the Year - and it's about to be three - and he did this thing at both ends too. Without them, what I do is nothing."
Gobert added 16 points and 15 rebounds and made a clutch block on Damian Lillard with 5.2 seconds to help ice the game as Utah bounced back from a road loss in Miami on Monday night that ended their five-game winning streak.
After struggling in the early weeks of the season, the Jazz now sit sixth in the Western Conference with a 19-12 record with seven wins from their last 10 games.
Mitchell said he can sense his team's overall performance improving.
"We are picking it up defensively. We have struggled in that area a little bit. Offensively, we are moving the ball better. We are all clicking and we know where to be.
"That was going to come with time when you have new guys coming into the team. Just trying to gel together, we all wanted it to happen fast but sometimes it takes more time.
"We have levels. We should have more this game by more than six [points]. We should have put [the Blazers] away."