On April 17, Beijing time, the NBA playoffs officially began, and the first game was played between the Lone Ranger and the Jazz. The game was played at home to the Lone Rangers, but doncic, the core of the team, was absent due to injury. In the game, the other players of the Lone Ranger played well, only 2 points behind in the first half, but in the second half, facing the explosive Mitchell, the Lone Ranger failed to resist. In the end, the Lone Ranger lost 93-99 to the Jazz, and the big score became 0-1 behind.
In this campaign, the Jazz sent the strongest lineup, the Lone Ranger could only adjust the lineup because of Doncic's absence, and Dinwiddie and Brunson became a backcourt combination. Both teams were not in good shape at the beginning, the Lone Ranger had the upper hand with the outside touch, but suddenly fell into a scoring drought in the last moments of the first half, and the Jazz seized the opportunity to reverse the score with a 13-2 offensive wave. In the second half, the Lone Ranger was still chasing points, but Mitchell regained his touch, and in the third quarter, he scored 19 points alone to lead the team to the upper hand; in the final moments, the Lone Rangers still had a chance, at one point, narrowed down to 1 point, fortunately, O'Neal hit a three-pointer, and Brunson and Bullock missed a shot and lost the opportunity to chase points.
Without Doncic, the Lone Ranger still kept the suspense until the last moment, the play was still very good, and the team also had 5 people to score in double figures. Dinwiddie had 22 points and eight assists, Brunson had 24 points, seven rebounds and five assists, Bullock had 15 points and six rebounds, Smith had 14 points and Kleber had 10 points.
Although the Jazz won the game, they did not have an absolute upper hand on the court, and they still need to sum up against the Lone Ranger without Doncic. In this campaign, the duo of Mitchell and Bogdanovic scored 58 points, which is the key to the team's victory. Among them, Mitchell scored a game-high 32 points, of which 30 points came from the second half, completing self-redemption, but his efficiency was not high, shooting 10 of 29, 2 of 6 three-pointers, 10 of 11 free throws, and 6 rebounds and 6 assists. Bogdanovic scored 26 points on 11-of-20 shooting.
Mitchell was in charge of the charge, while Gobert was at ease guarding the basket, scoring only one shot in the game and scoring five points from the free throws. Without a shot, Gobert concentrated on grabbing rebounds, grabbing 17 rebounds to help the team rebound a 53-34 lead. Gobert also set a record, becoming the first player in history to make a one-time shot but grab 17 rebounds.