Who Scores More Points Donovan Mitchell or Ja Morant?
By Peter Dewey
Donovan Mitchell and the Utah Jazz are looking to complete a gentleman’s sweep of the Memphis Grizzlies on Wednesday night to advance to the Western Conference semifinals.
Mitchell, who has led the Jazz to three straight wins since returning from an ankle injury for Game 2, has averaged 28.0 points per game in the series and has a player prop projection on WynnBET of 27.5 for Game 5. The over (-104) is a slight underdog to the under (-120).
Facing off against another superstar guard in Ja Morant, it’s going to be interesting to see if Mitchell can continue scoring the ball at an all-time pace for Jazz players in the postseason.
Donovan Mitchell is averaging 27.4 PPG in his playoff career.
— StatMuse (@statmuse) June 1, 2021
That’s the most in Jazz franchise history (min 25 games).
(Submitted by @JoshlikesJazz) pic.twitter.com/kTIEDmul2n
Morant, who has had a fantastic postseason as well, has his point total set at 25.5 on WynnBET with the under (-120) being favored to the over (+100). If you had listened to BetSided's Iain MacMillan, you would have hit on Morant’s under for Game 4 after WynnBET raised his projected point total to 25.5.
So which player will score more points in Game 5 in Utah?
Mitchell seems like the easy choice given his play, but it’s hard to count out Morant considering he is averaging 31.0 points per game in the series. The other thing that could throw a wrench in this bet, is the Jazz may choose to rest Mitchell if they get out to a big lead.
When the Jazz won by double digits in both Game 2 and Game 3, Mitchell played only 26 and 30 minutes in those games. He still got off plenty of shots, as he's averaging 21.3 shot attempts per game, but there is always some concern when a player is coming off a major injury.
Morant, who played 43:15 in Game 4, is going to see a major workload again in Game 5 as the Grizzlies try to force the series back to Memphis. Despite the extra minutes, Ja has only taken 1.5 more shots per game than Mitchell, but he is shooting 48.4 percent from the field.
The season-long numbers favor Mitchell, but don’t be surprised if Morant puts up another eye-opening performance in hopes of keeping the Grizzlies' season alive.