It was a night to forget for Donovan Mitchell and the Utah Jazz.
Mitchell shot just 6-for-16 (37.5%) from the field, scoring 16 points in 30 minutes of action as his team suffered a 130-110 loss at the hands of the defending champion Toronto Raptors.
Aside from a record-breaking third quarter in which they scored 49 points, not much went right for the Jazz, who trailed by as many as 40 points in the game. In response to the letdown, Mitchell took to Twitter to express his frustrations:
Please please please have the same energy... please 🤐
— Donovan Mitchell (@spidadmitchell) December 2, 2019
The 23-year-old joins a growing list of star players that Toronto has managed to neutralize with its impressive team defence as he entered the night averaging 25.3 points (on 44.3% shooting), 5.1 rebounds and 3.7 assists per game
MORE: The Raptors are kryptonite for opposing stars
After entering the season with aspirations to contend for an NBA title, the Jazz now fall to 12-8 through the first 20 games of the season and are just 5-5 over their last 10 games. Following the loss to Toronto, Utah is sixth in the West and holds just a 1.5 game lead over Minnesota.
Of course, it's still early, and in recent years, the Jazz have come on strong to close the season. In fact, the team's off to their best start since the 2010-11 season and it's the first time that a Donovan Mitchell-led Jazz team has had a winning record through 20 games.
| Season | Record through 20 games | Final record | Seed |
| 2019-20 | 12-8 | – | – |
| 2018-19 | 9-11 | 50-32 | 5 |
| 2017-18 | 9-11 | 48-34 | 5 |
If history is any indicator, Quin Snyder will rally this Jazz squad to propel them towards the top half of the Western Conference.
Considering the fact that the team is still working to integrate new pieces in Mike Conley and Bojan Bogdanovic, it is realistic to believe that they will only get better as time goes on.
When things do improve, Mitchell's tweet seems to be instructions for those that have made the decision to write this team off early on.
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