Jazz Choke at Home, Lose Game 6 & Series to Mavs
And just like that, the Utah Jazz's season is over.
Despite fans holding onto hope that Donovan Mitchell and the Jazz could overcome Monday night's historically bad showing and bounce back at home to tie the series back up, the Dallas Mavericks prevailed in Game 6, 98-96.
Game 6 started on a positive note with the Jazz taking a double-digit lead into the half. But the Mavs, led by star Luka Doncic, stormed back in the second half.
As always, the winner and loser was decided by the team that could execute in the clutch. Dallas made one or two additional plays when the chips were down that the Jazz simply could not.
If there's scapegoat in Utah's season-ending loss, it's a dubious distinction held jointly by Mike Conley and Bojan Bogdanovic. After getting a surprising stop with just under 10 seconds to go and trailing by one point, the Jazz pushed the ball in a fastbreak down the court.
The pass went to Conley, who awkwardly pulled up in the paint and hippity-hopped one step too many into a traveling call, giving the ball back to Dallas with five seconds to go. The inbounds pass went to Jalen Brunson, who was immediately fouled.
Fortune seemed to smile on the Jazz as Brunson missed his first free throw, making his second. Head coach Quin Snyder called timeout.
With 4.3 seconds to go, the inbound pass from the half-court went to Bogdanovic, whose fake made the defender leap up and out of frame, giving him a wide-open three-point shot. Bogdanovic had as clear a shot as any pro basketball player could dream of, to win the game, and keep his team's season alive — and he bricked it.
Duh duh duh...
Doncic and Brunson both finished with 24 points, respectively, while Utah's leading scorer on the night was Mitchell with 23.
As the Jazz morosely wandered the court amid Dallas' joyful triumph, fans are left to wonder why this team can't find a way to parlay its regular-season success into the playoffs and what the future holds.
Will the Jazz move forward with the Donovan Mitchell/Rudy Gobert ticket? Or is that fateful offseason Jazz fans have agonized over where the star combination finally gets broken up?
Time will tell. But there's a distinct, all-too-real possibility that Mitchell may have just played his final game in a Jazz uniform.
Follow Chad on Twitter @ChadNJensen.
