Donovan Mitchell's right ankle has worsened throughout the Western Conference Semifinals as the Utah Jazz now find themselves on the brink of elimination. Mitchell finished with a postseason-low 21 points on 6-of-19 shooting in Game 5.
"It's something I'm going to have to deal with," Mitchell said. "I mean, it f---ing sucks. I ain't got nothing else to say. Like, it's tough when you're trying different things that you normally do and you see spots you can get to, but you can't, so you got to find a way to make it happen.
"It's tough, but I got to find a way. Otherwise, I'm going to be home. And I said it last year ... and I said during the year, we didn't do all this to lose in the second round, so we got to figure it the f--- out. Otherwise, that's it. Excuse my language."
Mitchell missed the final 16 games of the regular season and the Jazz also held him out of Game 1 of the first round, which created controversy with his disagreement with the decision.
Mitchell has aggravated the injury on multiple occasions during the second round.
"For most of my life, I've been able to push by, explode by, and jump through people or over people, and for the first time in my career, I've had to play on the floor," Mitchell said. "Knowing when to attack, picking my spots, finding my teammates, I think that's the biggest thing, being able to kind of get off, hit them when they're doubling me and engaging the blitz. And I think I did a solid job of that. I can do better. It's a learning process and it sucks that I'm learning this through the playoffs, but it is what it is and no excuses."