Korver Praises Mitchell After Game 3 Loss

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – Following their Game 3 loss to the Houston Rockets, Utah Jazz forward Kyle Korver had a strong message in the locker room about Donovan Mitchell.

Mitchell missed the potential game-tying three-pointer with 10 seconds left and took the loss pretty hard.

After the media asked Korver their questions and the media was walking away from Korver’s locker, the 16-year veteran asked the media to return so he can say something.

“I have never been around a young player like Donovan Mitchell. I have never seen someone so young take ownership of a team, take ownership of his play, do it with charisma, do it with class. Never seen that in my 16 years in the NBA. He missed a tough shot tonight, but it’s just going to be part of his story. If you’ve played any meaningful basketball in the NBA, you have a shot like that. If you don’t, that means you haven’t played in meaningful games, or you haven’t been trusted by your teammates or coaches to take that shot. I don’t care who it is in history, everyone has a shot they want back. This is going to be part of the story at the end of the day. Because of who he is, he’s going to put too much on that shot, but we missed free-throws, we missed dunks, we missed layups, we missed threes. It was not about that shot. It was not about that shot. We had so many more chances to win that game. But I’m super proud of him. He came out and like, he heard that he hadn’t played as well as he wanted to in the first couple of games, and he put the whole thing on his back. For a young guy, 21 years old or whatever he is, that’s really special. He is on a great path in the NBA. At the end of the day, this is just going to be part of his story, part of his journey. He’s just going to keep building on it.”

Mitchell finished with a game-high 34 points on 9-of-27 shooting, including 4-of-12 from downtown. He made five of his first seven field goals in the first quarter before finishing just 4-for-20 from the field. Mitchell made 12-of-17 from the free throw line.

Korver had 8 points on 2-of-5 shooting from downtown in 16 minutes off the bench.

Thank you for bringing the intensity to @vivintarena, Jazz fans ❤️

“This is the best crowd in the NBA … They had our back. They always do.”

More from Donovan & Rudy postgame 📹 pic.twitter.com/cF64I2VRa7

— Utah Jazz (@utahjazz) April 21, 2019

The Jazz will look to avoid elimination with Game 4 on Monday at 8:30 p.m. on TNT.