The Utah Jazz suffered a demoralising last-second defeat to the Boston Celtics on Wednesday night which put a dent in their playoff hopes. Jaylen Brown drilled a game-winning three-pointer with just 0.3 seconds remaining to give the visiting Celtics a narrow 97-94 win in Salt Lake City. The Jazz went cold down the stretch as they failed to score in the final 2:25 of the game as Boston ended on a 9-0 run. Even rookie sensation Donovan Mitchell couldn't break them out of the scoring slump, even though he was having another solid game up until that point. Everything seemed to be going Utah's way late in the fourth quarter as Mitchell produced two highlight plays in what turned out to be their final two baskets of the night. With just under three minutes to go in the fourth quarter, the 21-year-old used a Rudy Gobert screen to escape Shane Larkin and was faced up by Greg Monroe in a mismatch. The shooting guard immediately took full advantage and dropped the big man with a slick crossover dribble and beautifully laid the ball in. 

In their next possession, he once again drove into the lane and with the Celtics defence focused on him, he delivered a perfect no-look pass to the cutting Jae Crowder who put the home side up by six. 

But Utah couldn't buy a basket after that as the C's ramped it up on the defensive end and stifled them. 

Mitchell ended the game with a game-high 22 points but didn't shoot the ball extremely well, going 7-of-20 from the field and 3-of-8 from three-point range. 

The youngster believes a loss of focus was the main reason for their second straight defeat at home. 

"We had lack of focus at times," Mitchell said, per ESPN. "Sometimes, like at the first of the game, we didn't play well offensively and that puts too much pressure on our defense."

The Louisville product has carried the load offensively for the Jazz all year and leads the team in scoring with 20.3 points per game.

But he found it tough to break down one of the league's best defences when it mattered and Utah couldn't get a bucket from anybody else. 

None of the blame will be placed at Mitchell's door, though, as he's had a remarkable first year in the NBA and has been a huge reason why they're still in playoff contention. 

They drop to eighth in the west with this defeat but are still one game ahead of the Los Angeles Clippers with just seven contests to go. 

With a home clash with the Memphis Grizzlies next, they need to take care of business against one of the worst teams in the west and keep their hopes alive.

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