With Donovan Mitchell starting to pop up in their conversations about the 1986 Boston Celtics, fans of the Massachusetts franchise are beginning to understand why Celtics shooting guard Jaylen Brown used him as an example of ubiquity.
If the reference isn’t clear, let us spell it out to you — in today’s loss to the Denver Nuggets, the Utah Jazz’ Mitchell dropped 57 points.
Nobody — and we do mean no one — has done that since Michael Jordan dropped 63 points on current team president and former shooting guard Danny Ainge’s Celtics in the first round of the 1986 NBA Playoffs, per ESPN’s Tim McMahon.
Mitchell's 57 points are the third-most in NBA playoff history behind Michael Jordan (63) and Elgin Baylor (61) https://t.co/Mn1Hr4Bk6S
— matt eppers (@meppers_) August 17, 2020
In fact, it’s the third-most ever scored by anyone in the playoffs of any year, ever — trailing only Elgin Baylor (61 points) and His Airness’ assault on Boston 34 years ago (again, 63 points), according to USA TODAY’s Matt Eppers.
Now we aren’t saying that Spida is the second coming of MJ or even Elgin Baylor, but when you put up those kinds of points in the loss, it tends to elicit a certain kind of a response.
57 points for future Celtic Donovan Mitchell
— Cameron Tabatabaie (@CTabatabaie) August 17, 2020
No, not that one — we were thinking more of the ‘lavish praise’ variety, even if you can’t help but blame people for wanting more for such a dynamic player.
No wonder Jaylen Brown can’t stop seeing Mitchell everywhere.
