Donovan Mitchell opened his third NBA season with a bang, scoring six of his game-high 32 points in the final minute Wednesday night as the Utah Jazz held off the Oklahoma City Thunder 100-95 in Salt Lake City.
Mitchell tipped in his own miss with 54.4 seconds left for a 94-90 lead, then canned a 20-foot pullup from the right wing with 21.8 seconds remaining to make it 96-91. He added two foul shots with 8.1 ticks on the clock for a 98-94 advantage.
Mitchell also grabbed 12 rebounds for Utah, which got 16 points from Bojan Bogdanovic. Royce O'Neale hit all six of his field-goal tries and scored 14, and Emmanuel Mudiay came off the bench to chip in 12 points.
The Jazz won despite getting only five points on 1-of-16 shooting from new point guard Mike Conley.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander pumped in 26 points to pace Oklahoma City while Chris Paul netted 22 in his first game for the Thunder after being traded from Houston for Russell Westbrook in the offseason. Danilo Gallinari hit for 21 points, and Hamidou Diallo scored 12 in a reserve role.
Utah controlled the first quarter with its defense, forcing Oklahoma City to go more than three minutes before it hit a field goal. The Jazz led 12-5 less than five minutes into the game on a layup by Bogdanovic, and they took a 23-12 advantage to the second quarter.
The Thunder got back into the game in the second with the help of the 3-pointer. Paul canned two in a row, and Gallinari and Gilgeous-Alexander added treys during a 16-5 run that tied the game. But a 9-2 run, capped by a driving dunk from Mitchell, gave Utah a 49-46 edge at intermission.
Gilgeous-Alexander scored six straight points in a 77-second span of the third quarter to give Oklahoma City a 66-62 lead. Diallo converted a bank shot from the left wing as time expired in the period to increase the Thunder's advantage to 74-68.
--Field Level Media
