“Grateful to have Dwyane Wade coaching me from the sidelines”: Donovan Mitchell gives the Miami Heat legend his flowers following the Jazz Game 1 win over Paul George and the Clippers

Donovan Mitchell drops 45 points against the Clippers and says he’s grateful to have Dwyane Wade coaching him from the sidelines. 

As Ian Eagle said prior to the commencement of this Game 1 bout between the Los Angeles Clippers and the Utah Jazz, “The story tonight for the Jazz will be rest or rust.” Donovan Mitchell and company had nearly a week off going into the WCSF against the Clips and it seems as though it paid off as LA went ice cold down the stretch and couldn’t keep up with Mitchell. 

‘Spida’ had his fourth 40+ point game in the Playoffs, tying Karl Malone for most in Utah Jazz history. His 45 points led the way for Utah in Mike Conley’s absence and trumped both Paul George and Kawhi Leonard’s total combined points. It’s safe to say that Ty Lue will refrain from ever putting Luke Kennard on Donovan Mitchell rest of the way through this series.

After getting off to an average start in the first half, Mitchell turned it up several notches and dropped 13 points in the first 5 minutes of the 3rd. In the waning minutes of this quarter, Dwayne Wade was seen giving pointers to Don following his scoring outburst.

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Donovan Mitchell gives props to Dwyane Wade for coaching him up from the sidelines. 

Dwyane Wade recently made headlines after he announced he would take part ownership in the Utah Jazz. This would mean he’s, by default, obligated to root for Salt Lake City and he did so with a lot of passion on the sidelines along with his wife, Gabrielle Union.

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Donovan Mitchell was asked about what it was like to have a 3x champion of the caliber of D-Wade in his corner during the latter half of the game. Mitchell claimed that he was grateful and that Wade was like an older brother to him. 

Ironically, the two have had a bevy of comparisons be made about their playstyles and Don was even labelled as ‘Dwyane Wade 2.0’ by many fans and analysts alike. Everything from the explosive first step to the finishing around the rim are all qualities the two possess.  

It’ll be interesting to see if Donovan Mitchell goes on his own version of the Miami Heat 2006 title run with the Utah Jazz this year as the potential for this is clearly there.