'Poetic justice': Utah Jazz stars Donovan Mitchell, Rudy Gobert connect on game-winner to even series

SALT LAKE CITY — With their season likely on the line, the Utah Jazz's franchise cornerstones — who have one of the NBA's most heavily scrutinized partnerships — connected.

The result: A go-ahead alley-oop from Donovan Mitchell to Rudy Gobert that allowed the Jazz to even the series in Saturday's Game 4. It was the sweetest moment yet in the All-Stars' occasionally tense five-season tenure as teammates.

«It's poetic justice in a way,» Gobert told ESPN after Utah's 100-99 win over the Dallas Mavericks. «It's a play that we've made many times. It just happened to be the game-winning play tonight.»

Much of the discussion about the Jazz over the last few years has focused on the dynamic between Gobert and Mitchell. That started when they were the first two NBA players to test positive for COVID-19 at the beginning of the pandemic, after which Mitchell blamed Gobert for infecting him. They didn't talk for months until just before the Jazz started training in preparation for the bubble.

Mitchell's passing to Gobert, or lack thereof, and the big man's displeasure about it had created some friction between them before that point. The infrequency of Mitchell's passes to Gobert — just 2.7 passes per game this season, according to Second Spectrum data — became a focal point in media coverage of the team while the Jazz were struggling late in the regular season.

So the leaping chest bump Gobert and Mitchell exchanged at half court after the go-ahead dunk was about more than celebrating that play, which was Mitchell's first game-tying or go-ahead assist to Gobert in the final minute of any of their 345 games played together, according to ESPN Stats & Information research.

It was a cathartic moment.

«Metaphoric on some level,» Jazz