LOS ANGELES — Nearly 6,000 miles from the Crypto.com Arena in Limoges, France, a 7-foot-4 basketball prospect pushed the ball between his skyscraper legs before taking a one-footed three-point shot that swished through the rim, evoking some ungodly mix of Kevin Durant and Dirk Nowitzki.
This, everyone assumed, is where the Utah Jazz’s attentions would be.
Instead, the team that traded Donovan Mitchell, Rudy Gobert and Bojan Bogdanovic this offseason is the first in the Western Conference to seven wins, blitzing the lukewarm Los Angeles Lakers in a 130-116 win.
