Teammates for five years at Utah, Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert met for the first time in the NBA tonight. A duel that turned to the advantage of Wolves, even if the French pivot quickly left on injury…
For the stats sheet of this match, it is to be found here.
Acolytes and co-leaders of Jazz for five years, Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell have had many adventures together near Salt Lake City. If the relationship between the two men has experienced ups and downs, each has multiplied the speeches in recent months to deflate the rumors of tension between them. Last night, it was time for a reunion on the pitch (Spida had missed the first leg due to injury) and we could see before kick-off that the relationship still seemed to be in good shape between the pivot and the back .
Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell embrace before their first matchup ???? pic.twitter.com/abTBF4BvXx
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) January 15, 2023
A nice moment between the two players but there was a game to play behind and unfortunately it didn’t last very long for our national Rudy Gobert, who joined the locker room even before half-time. Touched in the groin, the interior tricolor will have played only 13 minutes against his former comrade, for 6 points and 4 rebounds. Not enough to disturb the Wolves, however, who ran after the score for a long time before finishing strong in the money time to return Cleveland. Anthony Edwards led his team to success with 26 points, 7 assists and 6 rebounds, well assisted by the bench players: Jaylen Nowell responded as the Naz Reid – Luka Garza pair stepped up to post 5 to make forget Rudy Gobert.
On the Cavs side, we may regret this end to the game, which was poorly controlled when the victory was completely obtainable. The other actor of the evening, Donovan Mitchell was well, well, far from his season standards (14 points at 5/16 shooting and 2/9 from afar…). We also have the impression that JB Bickerstaff is still groping as much on the choice of his rotations, in particular on the wing. Cleveland will try to revive this Monday against the Pelicans, on the occasion of Martin Luther King Day.
