SALT LAKE CITY — A lot of star power was missing from Monday’s Utah Jazz matchup against the Dallas Mavericks, including Donovan Mitchell.
The Jazz’s All-Star guard did not play in Friday’s back-to-back opener against the San Antonio Spurs due to a left lower leg peroneal strain, though he returned the next day to play against the Denver Nuggets.
On Sunday night, Mitchell was listed as questionable for the Jazz’s seeding game against the Mavericks with the same ailment and then downgraded to “out” on the team’s injury report Monday morning.
The Mavericks, on the first day of a back-to-back set, were also missing their biggest stars on Monday in Luka Doncic and Kristaps Porzingis, as well as Dorian Finney-Smith.
Although the there are matchups that would certainly be more favorable for the Jazz in the postseason, through the seeding games the coaching and performance staff are doing their best to be mindful of delivering healthy players to the postseason, regardless of the result of the games leading to that point.
“The bubble seeding games, for teams like us — and there are others as well — that have come into this stretch with a playoff berth already clinched ... to prioritize health more than anything,” head coach Quin Snyder said on Monday morning. “If you’re banged up and don’t have guys available it’s tough to win in the playoffs.”
With that in mind, Snyder has been conservative with the Jazz’s heavy minute guys. As with any stretch of the NBA season, most players are banged up and have minor injuries here and there, and Snyder said some of the time, playing through those can help, but only to a certain extent.
“I don’t think anyone anticipated a double-overtime game, I know we didn’t think our guys were going to play that many minutes,” he said of Saturday’s loss to the Denver Nuggets. “Right now is not the time to push the envelope on that. I was glad that we had an opportunity to play such a competitive game on such a high level the other night but it does take a toll.”
No player felt the brunt of that game as much as Mitchell, who played a game-high 47 minutes, 5 seconds against the Nuggets. And, along with Rudy Gobert, no other players are more important to the Jazz and their prospective success in the playoffs.
“You can’t minimize it,” Snyder said. “He’s a guy who we rely on for so many things. I said it before, we want him not just healthy, but 100%. If he’s 99, then we need to make sure we get him to 100. If he’s 92, get him to 94, whatever the case may be.”
With Mitchell’s ability to play Saturday, and Snyder referencing the 90th percentile as far as health is concerned, there doesn’t seem to be any reason to be overly concerned about Mitchell’s availability moving forward, but erring on the side of caution is the most responsible course of action.
That philosophy extended through the game on Monday. Though Gobert, Joe Ingles, Royce O’Neale, Mike Conley, and Jordan Clarkson were the starters, an all-bench lineup started the third quarter with the Jazz resting the their heavy rotation players, of which many played 40-plus minutes on Saturday.