Report: Donovan Mitchell expected to miss several games with ankle sprain [UPDATE]

Update: April 17 — Mitchell is expected to miss several games after spraining his ankle on Friday afternoon vs. the Pacers, per Woj. The good news is Mitchell got an MRI and it revealed no structural damage to the ankle. Still, the Jazz will be without their starting guard and leading scorer for a bit while trying to fend off the Suns for first in the West.

Utah Jazz All-Star G Donovan Mitchell was helped to the locker room after landing awkwardly on his ankle in Friday’s game vs. the Indiana Pacers. Mitchell appeared to severely turn his ankle in the third quarter with the Pacers in the lead. The Jazz guard had 22 points before having the exit the game. The injury is a bit reminiscent of LeBron James’ ankle injury from a month or so ago. Hopefully Mitchell is OK and can return to the contest.

Update: Mitchell has a right ankle sprain and will not return Friday vs. the Pacers. X-Rays came back negative on the ankle and Mitchell is expected to go for an MRI later tonight, per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. Woj also says there’s early optimism this isn’t a serious injury, which is great news.

The injury did not look good. We’ve got a video courtesy of @ThisIsJMichael on Twitter. Mitchell appears to badly roll the ankle during a transition play. Check out the video here:

Here’s a video of Mitchell on the sideline having to be helped to the locker room:

The Jazz entered Friday 1.0 games up on the Phoenix Suns for first place in the Western Conference with a 41-14 record. If the Jazz lose this game, they’d fall to 0.5 game up and the Suns would have a chance to tie the Jazz on Saturday when they play the San Antonio Spurs. If the Jazz are going to be without Mitchell for an extended period of time, this could have huge playoff seeding implications in the West. We’ve already had one big injury go down in the West with Jamal Murray done for the season for the Denver Nuggets with a torn ACL. This doesn’t look like it will be as serious for Spida as it was for the Blue Arrow.

If Mitchell is out long-term, it’s going to be a tough injury to bounce back from, especially for your fantasy basketball team. If you had Mitchell in season-long and this ends up being serious, there won’t be an immediate replacement on the waiver wire. Either Jordan Clarkson or Joe Ingles would be OK stop-gaps. Ingles has been known to step up when Mitchell and Mike Conley have been sidelined this season. Jingling Joe can provide a lot of category coverage and his assist total would get a nice boost with Mitchell out. Clarkson would have to take on the role of go-to scorer. Conley also could pick up more scoring slack if D-Mitch is out.