MELBOURNE — Jazz guard Donovan Mitchell decided to be a contrarian in the bowels of Melbourne’s Marvel Stadium after Team USA lost, 98-94, to the Australian men’s national team on Saturday night.
“To be honest, this game doesn’t mean anything,” Mitchell said.
The 52,019 fans that made up the largest crowd to ever attend a basketball game in Australia would disagree. The Australian team who beat the American squad for the first time in 26 tries would disagree too. The naysayers who saw the Americans lose for the first time since 2006 would disagree as well.
“Obviously it hurts to lose, but I look at this and we look at this as more of a learning experience as opposed to we just lost,” Mitchell continued. “That’s the mindset. If you think of this as a loss, you start to get carried away with all that.
“We’re focused on the film. … We’re going to watch it on the plane and…
