Big game five win for the Utah Jazz to close out the round one series

Both Mitchell and Gobert appear to be making passive-aggressive remarks towards each other on social media. Photo: Michele Roepke

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah. — The number one ranked Utah Jazz are moving on, victorious, from the first round western playoff series at 4-1 against the Memphis Grizzlies with a score of  126 to 110 which, at one point, was a 35 point lead by the Jazz.

Inside the Vivint Arena, prior to tipoff, a moment of silence was observed by the in-person fans followed by a standing ovation for former Jazz athlete Mark Eaton. Eaton sadly passed away on Friday in Park City while riding his bike.

Donovan Mitchell took a seat on the bench twice in the first quarter and a half from hard knocks to the head and to the chin respectively. However, that didn’t tarnish his play in any way as he scored 30 points in both game four and this game five.

The Jazz’s Rudy Gobert came away with a double double tonight, then in the fourth played a jump ball after the ball stopped in its tracks, wedged between the hoop ring and the backstop. Utah’s Royce O’Neil told AT&T SportsNet field commentator Kristen Kenney in the run-up to tonight’s game, they needed to play, “Jazz basketball,” and not only did they but they just may have redefined that concept for the better. Gobert said it takes, “Never giving up and hard work,” to Kenney, both philosophies the exuberant fans saw a ton of tonight.

Mike Conley, the Utah point guard who used to play for the Memphis Grizzlies, or ‘Mountain Mike’ as dubbed by “Jazz Nation” had a great game until heading into the locker room early hopefully to return for the upcoming series.

This was, in a sense, the Jazz’s mulligan after last season’s not-so-happy series thus season-ending game five being beat in Denver by the Nuggets. The bubble was successful in shutting COVID out but the Jazz was shut out from advancing by a 107 to 117 loss. That experience seemingly lit a fire under the Jazz going into tonight’s game five. 

The Grizzlies Greyson Allen, former Jazz player for one season last year, try as he and his current teammates might, couldn’t put a dent in the Jazz’s momentum all night as they broke franchise records left and right.

Grizzlies Ja Morant’s mother Jamie declined the offer made personally by the Jazz owner Ryan Smith for gratis courtside tickets and lodging. She instead watched from Tennessee. Morant’s dad Tee did take Smith’s offerings for tonight’s game in Salt Lake City. Racially and sexually charged language had been directed towards them earlier in this series resulting in three Utah fans being removed and banned indefinitely from Vivint Arena. 

Basketball fans around the country are mourning the passing of Eaton. Not unlike the heartbreaking loss when Deer Valley Utah’s highly-revered Stein Eriksen passed away on December 27, 2015, Christmas week, when skiers gathered serendipitously in Northern Utah at the Stein Eriksen Lodge. Eaton fans gathered this week serendipitously to both celebrate the Jazz’s current winning streak and his celebrated legacy. 

The CEO of the NBA’s Philidelphia 76ers Scott O’Neil said to Gail King on CBS This Morning this morning, “Sports has a purpose and that’s to bring us together and to lift us up.” He was answering her question regarding gathering to spectate while the world slowly slips out of the clutches of COVID. The 76ers lead the East playoff series 3-1.

The winner of the Clipper, Mavericks’ round one series will play Utah next in the NBA round two playoffs.