Donovan Mitchell was heated.
The Utah Jazz guard picked up three fouls in the first half, wasn’t making the shots that he normally would, and all the while he felt like he wasn’t being treated fairly by the game officials.
It’s not the first time that he’d felt like this. There are often games where he feels like he doesn’t draw the same number or type of fouls as others do.
“I just don’t feel like I’m getting those calls, especially when I’m attacking downhill as much as I do attack,” Mitchell said. “I am tired of it because I’m working my (butt) off to get downhill to try to create for the offense. Not just to get to the bucket to score, but to draw the defense in and kick out.”
On Wednesday night against the Chicago Bulls, an anger that had been simmering for a while finally reached a boiling point.
“I feel like I’d had some (no-calls) last game and the game before that where I wasn’t getting those calls,” Mitchell said. “I just had to sound off because it was getting ridiculous.”
After the play in the video above, Mitchell punched at the air multiple times and screamed at official Marat Kogut, but Mitchell didn’t stop after that. For at least eight more seconds, until Ayo Dosunmu hit a 3-pointer on the other end, Mitchell continued his tirade and for his efforts he earned a technical foul.
“You might as well get your money’s worth at that point,” Mitchell said.
That foul, while at the moment was to the benefit of Chicago, might have been the worst thing that could have happened for the Bulls.
In less than five minutes Mitchell rattled off 17 points to close the third quarter. He finished the third quarter with a new career-high for points in a quarter (25), set a franchise record for 3-pointers in a quarter (7), and set a Jazz record for most points scored in the third quarter.
The din of the crowd was thundering and his teammates were on their feet in awe during Mitchell’s scoring frenzy. But for Mitchell it was quiet.
“To be honest it was just me and the ref out there,” he said. “I didn’t hear or see anything else just because I was so in it at that point.”
Mitchell finished the night with 37 points, just two points shy of his season-high and just nine short of his career-high of 46 in the Jazz’s 125-110 win over the Chicago Bulls.