Somebody please help Donovan Mitchell

Someone get Donovan Mitchell some help, STAT.

Following a 119-107 loss to the Denver Nuggets on Sunday night, Utah Jazz star Donovan Mitchell did not hold back his feelings.

As the final horn sounded, Mitchell and the Jazz immediately made a B-line toward the locker room. Along the way, a stationary bike and some signage suffered the wrath of the 2020 All-Star.

”Pissed” is the way Mitchell described the feeling multiple times in his post game presser- adding on that he wasn’t down, he was just angry that his team let another “winnable” game slip away late.

After a 44 point game that included a 9-of-13 shooting night from beyond the arc, no one could blame the normally even-keeled Mitchell for his attitude. He knows what is at stake, and has set a new bar for expectations going forward.

Through six games in the playoffs, the third-year guard out of Louisville is averaging 38.6 points per game- by far the most among his contemporaries, including a red-hot Luka Dončić, a searing Kawhi Leonard, and an other-worldly Jamal Murray.

Still, Mitchell has dropped 57, 30, and 44 now in losing efforts, and, for the most part, has been a one-man show as in the fourth quarter of every loss.

It’s not for lack of trying. On Sunday night, Mitchell could have tried to go shot for shot with a scorching-hot Murray. To an extent, he did nearly match Murray’s efforts, tallying 17 points in the fourth. However, Mitchell often tried to get his teammates involved to no avail.

Rudy Gobert fumbled multiple passes out of bounds, Royce O’Neale and Georges Niang drove to the free-throw line, reversed course, and lobbed it back out to Mitchell 35 feet from the basket. Joe Ingles was hesitant to get things going. Jordan Clarkson was a liability, logging a team-worst -24 in the +/- column.

Remember the tragic scene in The Lion King where Mufasa is trampled by stampeding wildebeests? Simba tries to come to his father’s rescue, and during one of the more heartbreaking scenes in modern cinema, cries out “help…. somebody… anybody…” but no one comes. Simba did everything he could do to help, but, in the end, he was left to fend for himself.

Donovan Mitchell is crying out for help, right now. Somebody… Anybody? Hell, throw in Miye Oni for all we care. Who’s going to have the fortitude to step up and help Donnie out?

The Jazz have been a wreck without Mitchell in the game in its last two match-ups. When Mitchell sat in the second quarter, a 10-point lead evaporated, and eventually became a 10-point deficit before Mitchell could stop the bleeding.

Meanwhile, the Nuggets have been a perfect example of how having weapons around you opens things up.

While Mitchell gets his points by driving into traffic and hoping to make yet another ridiculous shot, or by getting the defender on his heels and taking a tough three, Murray was the exact opposite. Murray remained in one-on-one situations all game long. He got multiple open looks late in the game and found himself thriving in a situation with lots of spacing.

All-Star center Nikola Jokić and forwards Jerami Grant and Michael Porter Jr. have been huge assets as players that you can’t shade off of to help on Murray.

In short, what Murray is doing is impressive, but the way that he is scoring 34 points per game in this series is completely juxtaposed by the way Mitchell is doing it.

That has to change if the Jazz want to have any hope of advancing to the next round.

Mitchell is alone out there- Especially as the game wears on. His teammates are looking to him to make every play, to put the team on his back and will them to a win yet again.

That won’t fly going forward. The Jazz have to return to their bread and butter; Spread the floor, run a two-man game in the pick-and-roll with Gobert and the ball-handler, and allow their spacing to make them impossible to defend.

Somebody… anybody… please help Donnie.