Rudy Gobert Feeds Donovan Mitchell For Back Door Dunk

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – Rudy Gobert fed Donovan Mitchell for a back door slam dunk late in the fourth quarter to extend the Utah Jazz lead over the Denver Nuggets.

Donovan Mitchell shot a three-pointer in the corner which missed when Rudy Gobert collected the offensive rebound. When Gobert grabbed the board, he posted up Nikola Jokic in the paint. Mitchell ran back door and Gobert threw a bounce pass to his right through the paint where Mitchell collected and threw down the dunk.

The play gave the Utah Jazz a 103-95 lead with 2:25 remaining in the game.

put this dunk in the louvre #TakeNote pic.twitter.com/ZJ4lhCe6s4

— utahjazz (@utahjazz) January 18, 2021

The Nuggets went on a mini7-0 run to trim the deficit to one-point with 1:19 left. Mitchell stopped the run with a 14-foot shot to extend the lead back to three points with 1:01 remaining.

Mitchell was up to 18 points, including 16 points in the second half. The Jazz All-Star guard had just 2 points in the first half, shooting 1-for-10 from the field. Rudy Gobert had 13 points, 13 rebounds and his only assist in the game was the back door dunk to Mitchell.

With the three-point lead late, Royce O’Neale made two free throws to put them up five points. Jamal Murray missed a three-pointer on the other end. After the Nuggets collected the offensive rebound, they called a timeout and Murray drilled a triple to cut the lead to two with 6 seconds left. O’Neale threw the ball to Gobert for the slam to seal the win.

The Jazz were on a quick one-game road trip before going back to Salt Lake City to play six straight and seven of their next 8 games at Vivint Smart Home Arena. This was the first time that Denver and Utah are playing since their classic seven-game playoff series last season in the bubble in Orlando, Florida.