Fernando Torres was struggling. Having scored 72 goals in his first three seasons at Liverpool, he had found the net just once in the first 10 games of what would turn out to be his final half-season at Anfield, in 2010-11.

With Torres' confidence through the floor, his Liverpool manager at the time, Roy Hodgson, tried something unusual to get the goals flowing again for the Spaniard. In training games, according to an interview with former Liverpool defender Daniel Agger a couple of years ago, Hodgson arranged a drill where eight forwards would face just two defenders, allowing them to score more in an apparent attempt to boost the striker's flagging self-belief.

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It didn't exactly work. Torres scored another eight goals before Chelsea paid £50 million for him that January, after which his form fell even further. Torres would later describe this period as the equivalent of "swimming with your clothes on." But it's tough to blame Hodgson too much. The form of strikers is one of football's most delicate and crucial balances and anything is worth trying in an attempt to get it back.

The notion of "form" for strikers is as fragile as it is intangible.

Torres is far from alone. There's Romelu Lukaku, Manchester United's expensive forward and owner of two significant scoring droughts this season, going six weeks without a goal either side of a brief reprieve in form that saw him net six in three games. Or Southampton's Shane Long, who's scored in back-to-back games to snap a run that saw him score just three times in the Premier League since February of 2017. Or Luis Suarez, who has just one goal in his past 20 Champions League matches.

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It doesn't even have to be a big drought to capture the headlines. Remember the pressure applied to Mohamed Salah following his remarkable 2017-18 season? Despite racking up 19 goals and seven assists in the league this season -- and 24 goals in all competitions for Liverpool -- more was made of his eight games without a goal from Feb. 9 to April 5.

And finally, take Christian Benteke: his goal in Crystal Palace's win over Arsenal on Sunday was his first since April 28, 2018, when he netted in a 5-0 win over Leicester. His first strike in 20+ league matches was a joy to watch, given that the decline of a man who was once such a feared marksman for Aston Villa has been as precipitous as it is heartbreaking to watch.

"He's certainly trying his best to get that goal," said his current manager Hodgson in October. "Really, all we can do is keep working at it and encourage him to keep his game going but, of course, psychologically these things do matter and do have an effect on players."

If that makes you want to give Benteke a hug and a high five, you're probably not alone but in truth, some strikers never recover from a period of bad form, or loss of confidence. Take Alan Smith, the former Arsenal striker, who won the Golden Boot in 1989 and 1991 but by 1992 was stuck in a rut he would never really recover from.

Collapses in form can be triggered by anything or nothing but in Smith's case, it was the arrival of fellow striker Ian Wright, who changed the way Arsenal played away from the structured style that Smith thrived in.

"You couldn't really knock him when he was putting the ball in the net all the time," Smith tells ESPN FC, taking care not to blame Wright, but the change in approach affected him to the point that his confidence disappeared.

In his recent autobiography "Heads Up," Smith wrote: "I began snatching at chances I would normally tuck away without even thinking. Next to Wrighty's lethal marksmanship, my miskicks and fumbles felt totally embarrassing. I wanted the ground to open up and swallow this shadow of a striker who started to dread the prospect of finishing practice."

A goal scorer's job is to be the man to whom everyone looks to win the game, so when that role is altered, it can have a calamitous impact.

"I just tried to fit around it all, which I did find difficult," says Smith, and once a striker gets into that negative mindset, even relatively innocuous-seeming things can become inflated. For example, Smith recounts the time Kevin Campbell, then a youngster who had not long broken into the Arsenal first team, arrived at training in a new Mercedes with a "KEV 9" number plate. But nine was Smith's number: was this young upstart muscling in? Was he being replaced? Is this the end?

"It's not a big thing, although at the time it felt like a big thing," Smith admits, but it's easy to see how seemingly minor things can creep into a striker's head when pessimism has already taken hold. "Looking back, I was probably looking elsewhere to blame somebody else, when I should have been looking at myself."

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When form has disappeared and confidence is low, the cycle becomes self-perpetuating. "You stop making the runs because you stop believing in yourself," former Manchester United striker Andy Cole told ESPN earlier this year. "I've been in that position... psychologically you don't really want the ball."

Smith agrees. "You're not quite sure what you're supposed to be doing, and almost dreading chances coming to you because you're not [confident] at all. Shying away from getting into those goal-scoring positions is the worst thing you can do."

That last point is the key one. A player will stop taking up the positions because they think they will miss, but not taking up the positions virtually eliminates the possibility of scoring and thus regaining confidence. Before long, that avoidance becomes obvious.

Bristol City manager Lee Johnson has worked with dozens of strikers in his six years as a coach and can quickly spot when a striker is hiding. "We're built to spot body language and signs," he says. "You can look at someone's eyes to see if they're glazed over or responsive. And you can quantify it now with statistics. The problem is when players go into their shell after perceived failure."

Of course, it is possible to correct problems like this, and many players turn to sports psychologists for help. Dan Abrahams is currently Bournemouth's lead psychologist and has worked with numerous Premier League and international players, often after they have found themselves in a rut and can't correct things on their own.

"The first port of call is to start having a conversation about what they look like when they're at their best," Abrahams tells ESPN FC. "What are they doing, what runs they're making, what their movement's like, and just trying to break that down into simple statements or key words. For example a striker might say 'I'm alert and lively,' so you build a mental structure around those words.

"That often makes a massive difference on the pitch, because they walk onto the pitch thinking 'I just want to look alert and lively today. I know what that looks like, and feels like. That's how I will judge myself today, and I won't worry if I don't score.'"

From there, a striker might relax and the physiological consequences of low confidence should lessen. "When you get stressed you get desperate," says Abrahams. "You go in the direction of frustration or anger, or you go the other way and get despondent. Your anticipation slows because your muscles are tight, and your decision-making slows."

That's basically what the layman might call "trying too hard."

"Sport tends to be very paradoxical: the more you try, often the worse you perform," Abrahams says.

Players might have these sort of conversations with managers, but when a striker is struggling then the manager will inevitably have to address it publicly. "I don't think you can hide from the truth, whatever that may be," Johnson says. "[When you speak in public] you're talking to your player, not the press: it could be a conscious decision to say he's falling short."

Johnson emphasises what a delicate balance that is between knowing "you've got to keep an element of authenticity about what you're saying," while at the same time avoiding the "high-risk strategy" of actively criticising a player in public.

Ultimately, as outside observers it's easy for us to forget that a striker in a barren run is in all likelihood going through significant turmoil. "I think people underestimate how tough it is to be a footballer," Johnson says. "These boys are 0.0001 percent of people that play -- they've already gone through a lot to get where they are."

Torres went on to win the Champions League, score in the Europa League final and return to his boyhood club Atletico Madrid. Smith's form never really came back and in his own words his career "largely dribbled to a close." Who knows what will happen with Benteke.

But for all of them, this isn't a discussion point or something to be mocked. For a striker out of form, football is not just their job but probably their passion too, and they're failing at it in front of millions every week. They're just looking for a way to stop that from happening.

T20 can be a fickle format at the best of times and it can be a tough ask for batsmen to come in under pressure needing score from the off. But still, Ashton Turner's current run of five ducks in a row - four of which have been first ball - is certainly eye-catching, for the wrong reasons. Here's a recap of the bad run.

Adelaide Strikers v Perth Scorchers, BBL, Adelaide: lbw b Laughlin

7.2 LBW! Two in three balls! This was 132kph, full and straight, he was caught on the crease, maybe thinking a slower ball was coming, he was hit on the knee roll infront of middle and it wasn't a tough decision. That was plumb.

India v Australia, 1st T20I, Visakhapatnam: b K Pandya

16.2 96.6 kph, and they are only going to get louder! Is there a way back for India still? Turner shuffles across and looks to sweep him fine, not the best idea against a wicket-to-wicket bowler like Krunal, and he is cleaned up

Kings XI Punjab v Rajasthan Royals, IPL, Mohali: c Miller b M Ashwin

16.3 duck on IPL debut! This, strangely enough, is a slow, tossed up legbreak, possibly because Ashwin thinks he can bait the big hitter into a false shot. And bait him he does. The equation makes Turner go for it. The turn on the ball makes the shot go to long-off when he is looking to go dead straight. Miller runs in and takes the catch and Royals are in a mess again

Rajasthan Royals v Mumbai Indians, IPL, Jaipur: lbw Bumrah

18.1 make that 0, 0, 0, 0. Bumrah's deadly inward angle and skiddiness does in another batsman. Turner's front leg moves half-forward and across the stumps, and he ends up playing around his front pad looking to work it into the leg side. The angle beats his inside edge, and it's the plumblest of lbw decisions thereafter

Rajasthan Royals v Delhi Capitals, IPL, Jaipur: c Rutherford b Ishant

16.4 GONE AGAIN! Slower ball, outside off, and he was looking to get towards covers, but just popped it up towards Rutherford at cover. Third golden duck in a row! Somewhere, you just know Ajit Agarkar is watching and smiling

He was cramping. The left forearm was losing strength on an incredibly hot evening. Thirty-six degrees, dry heat, at 9.30pm. But Ajinkya Rahane wasn't in the mood to give up. Twice the substitute fielder tried to run in with a drink, twice the umpire objected and twice Rahane was lost in his own routines.

He was fixated on adjusting his helmet and ensuring the right thumb sat properly inside the right glove compartment. Then he examined his bat grip and looked suspiciously at the toe-end as he looked to accelerate. He was in his batting zone. You could've displayed the Game of Thrones finale spoiler on the giant screen and he wouldn't have noticed. He was losing fluids, but replenishing his thirst with runs.

The fatigue wasn't going to stop him from making a statement though. When he got to his century, the determination was writ large. He pointed to the dressing room, not once but twice, and quietly pumped his fists. The typical Rahane smile was missing though. Few in his position would have.

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In the past week he's been dealt a few blows. He's been told 'sorry, but you're not in our World Cup plans', given a message that his captaincy wasn't working for Rajasthan Royals and that he had to hand the job back to his predecessor.

This could've been upsetting and possibly a huge dent on the ego. But then, Rahane isn't Virat Kohli, whose batting has somewhat covered up for a string of ordinary results. The only way Rahane could have escaped the ignominy of being left out was if he scored runs. That could've happened only if he rid himself of all the self-doubts and brought the fun back into his batting.

In his first outing after losing the job, he failed. On Monday, he ran Sanju Samson out for a diamond duck, a batsman who could've eased the pressure on Rahane with his silken touch. Now, Rahane was properly under the pump and yet he came out and stuck to an old cliché of his: "follow the process", which essentially in Rahane's book means relying on his timing and not trying to bat like Chris Gayle. His first boundary on the up through extra cover off Ishant Sharma was signature Rahane. It set the tone.

Up until then, each time he'd started well, he'd invariably lose rhythm trying to hoick and heave his way in as the ball got softer. Here, he sustained momentum right through. He raised the half-century off 32 balls and then reached his second T20 hundred off the next 26 balls. It had come at the same pace as Kohli's earlier in the season, much quicker than KL Rahul's or Sanju Samson, the other three Indian centurions.

He was lucky, too, when Ishant put down a sitter at short fine leg early in his innings, but after that he was batting with the freedom and authority he's rarely displayed in recent times. He flat-batted the tournament's best bowler Kagiso Rabada over his head, laced cover drives on the up for fun, as if he was taking his Audi out for a spin in Mumbai's Eastern Express Highway, and even made the scoops and paddles off the fast bowlers look ridiculously easy.

For a neutral in Jaipur, this was just a teaser, because the thrill was yet to come. Where Rahane had shown an extra gear to his batting and the ability to innovate at times, Rishabh Pant was finishing the game off for his team, fighting his way back into form after a brief lull where his shot selection earned a fair bit of criticism.

Playing on two-paced Feroz Shah Kotla pitches had frustrated the Delhi Capitals batsmen no end. Here at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium, on a surface that played far better than it looked, Pant was like a kid who had ditched the homework for his Playstation the moment his parents left the house.

Relying on his muscle, the hand-eye coordination, playing without the fear of the ball holding up and doing those little tricks, he brought up a brutal half-century, like he did in a winning cause at the Wankhede, where anything he hit kept sailing away. As a fielder, you had to sit and pray that he didn't hit it towards you, because he hit them so hard.

The message was clear. Pant was looking to throw the bowlers off gear, making a mockery of tight situations by bringing out his audacity. Yet, as the game veered towards the close, his astute awareness about whom to target and when to back off stood out.

Jofra Archer was bowling the 19th. He likes to hit the hard lengths or go for the yorkers. Pant waited patiently for five deliveries and then, with one ball left, decided to show his muscle and connected cleanly over long-on, with Capitals needing 13 off 7 balls.

He wasn't second-guessing, he was instinctively reacting to the ball. Seeing it, hitting it. Here he had paced his innings well, picking his spots, picking which bowler to target and then clinically bringing the target down, much like the man who he idolises - MS Dhoni - had done a day earlier in Bengaluru.

You couldn't help but think of what could've been had these two special knocks come a fortnight earlier.

The World Cup and the Australia A tours of England are edging closer, as planning steps up for Australia's massive next five months. An enormous number of Australians are playing in overseas competitions in the lead up to those tours. Here is the latest on how they are faring.

Who's in form and who's not

Steven Smith has bounced back to form after a bizarre week with back-to-back half-centuries in the IPL. He was dropped by Rajasthan Royals last week for scoring too slowly before being recalled and made captain for the remainder of the season. Against Mumbai Indians on Saturday he was Player of the Match after crafting a classy 59 not out from 48 balls to guide his side home chasing 162. On Monday against Delhi Capitals he made 50 from 32 balls in a 130-run stand with Ajinkya Rahane, although it was in a losing cause.

The debate surrounding whether David Warner should open the batting in the World Cup has almost become redundant. He is tearing the IPL apart at the top of the order for Sunrisers Hyderabad. He made his fourth consecutive half-century on Sunday and he has passed 50 in seven of his nine IPL innings so far to be the tournament's leading scorer by some margin, striking at 148.56.

Marcus Stoinis has done some good things for Royal Challengers Bangalore in their last two wins. He made 17 off 8 balls and took 1 for 32 against Kolkata Knight Riders. His late hitting was impressive but it was the three dots he bowled to the rampaging Andre Russell in the 19th over that were just as important in helping RCB to a vital win. He bowled well again against CSK on Sunday, conceding only 20 runs from three overs including just five runs in a crucial 15th over that left MS Dhoni with too much to do. Earlier he took an excellent catch at slip to remove Shane Watson. But he did face five dot balls in making 14 off 13 with the bat.

Glenn Maxwell's first three 50-over outings for Lancashire have yielded scores of 35, 21 and 22. He fell victim to Victoria team-mate James Pattinson trying to move around the crease and hit him over the off side in a cracking game against Nottinghamshire. Maxwell has bowled well in the last two high-scoring games, being used in the Powerplay and conceding only a run-and-a-ball and taking key wickets.

Jason Behrendorff has not played in Mumbai's last two games as they have shuffled their line-up.

Chris Lynn, who is not in the World Cup or Australia A squads, made a third half-century for the tournament but it was his slowest, from 45 balls, as his Knight Riders were beaten into submission by Warner's Sunrisers.

#Asheswatch

The County Championship season gave way to the Royal London One-Day Cup this week and although 50-over white-ball form may not carry as much weight towards Ashes selection there were some noteworthy performances for Australia's selectors to ponder.

James Pattinson raised eyebrows in his first game of the season for Nottinghamshire. In a game where more than 800 runs were scored at Trent Bridge he took 5 for 61 in 10 overs with 30 dot balls, including the prized scalp of Maxwell. But he only bowled five overs in the win over Derbyshire two days later.

Cameron Bancroft made a statement with two brilliant unbeaten centuries for Durham to deliver two wins in three days. Batting in an unfamiliar position at No.4 he made 151 not out from 130 balls against Northamptonshire, taking the long handle to West Indies skipper Jason Holder, before adding 118 not out from 117 balls against Leicestershire to control a chase of 234.

Matt Renshaw made his first List A century on Sunday for Kent in a loss to Sussex, having missed out in his previous two innings last week. Batting at No.3 he struck four sixes and nine fours, two of which came off England international Chris Jordan, in scoring 109 from 111 balls.

Marnus Labuschagne struggled in the three 50-over matches for Glamorgan last week. He managed just 19 runs in three innings. But he took 3 for 46 against Somerset and 1 for 45 against Hampshire with the ball.

Peter Siddle took 2 for 27 for Essex in a win against Labuschagne's Glamorgan. But he was expensive in his second game last week taking 3 for 71 in 10 overs as Middlesex racked up a winning total of 366 at Chelmsford.

Daniel Worrall made a successful start for Gloucestershire taking 2 for 22 from four overs in a huge win over Surrey and 2 for 30 in six overs in a loss to Middlesex.

Did you see?

Ashton Turner has had a disastrous start to his IPL career for Rajasthan Royals. He has become the first player in T20 history to register five ducks in a row after he was dismissed for three consecutive first-ball ducks in the IPL. He replaced Smith against Kings XI but came out to bat in a brutal situation needing 53 runs off 22 balls and understandably holed out first ball. In his second game against Mumbai, he walked out with 15 runs needed from 14 balls. That equation became 9 off 12 when by the time he faced his first ball but Jasprit Bumrah trapped him plumb in front. Against Delhi Capitals, he took strike with 21 balls remaining with a licence to go after a great platform had been set but he chipped his first ball to cover. Turner's last five T20 innings read 0, 0, 0, 0 and 0 dating back to the end of the BBL season. However, he did make that stunning 84 not out from 43 balls in Australia's ODI miracle at Mohali in the middle of that sequence.

Injury list

Moises Henriques hadn't played a game in this year's IPL but was due to get his first against the Royals last week only to injure his ankle in the warm-up. His injury looks likely to have ended his tournament before it even started. However, there is good news on Smith's elbow with the new Royals captain declaring he is only "two weeks away" from being able to throw properly again.

Performance of the week

There were lots of runs plundered by Australians in India and England, but it was hard to go past Pattinson's performance. Nottinghamshire and Lancashire made 823 runs in 100 overs at Trent Bridge. Three players made centuries including former South Africa international Dane Vilas who made 166 from 100 balls in the chase for Lancashire. Not only was Pattinson incredibly economical in the run-feast, his five wickets included Maxwell and Vilas to help Nottinghamshire ice the game.

Marnus Labuschagne will be one of three Glamorgan batsmen sent to play a 2nd XI county match to try and find form after a poor start to the Royal London Cup.

He has made 3, 15 and 1 in his first three one-day innings for Glamorgan with the team losing their opening three matches of the competition to leave them a tough ask to qualify for the knockouts.

Labuschagne will join fellow Queensland batsman Charlie Hemphrey and Kiran Carlson in playing against Somerset on Tuesday ahead of Glamorgan's next Royal London Cup match against Kent on Thursday.

"It's far better than netting and a great opportunity on a very good wicket," Glamorgan coach Matthew Maynard told BBC Sport Wales. "It'll give them [Labuschagne, Hemphrey and Carlson] an opportunity to score runs. You can play as well as anything in the nets, it doesn't always translate to the middle.

"Steve Waugh talked about how his mental resilience was developed by going back and playing grade cricket because he was expected to succeed and if the he failed, the opposition could take the micky for a long time.

"The three lads want to play. Four of our top seven batsmen are short of runs, hopefully they'll get an opportunity to score those runs and give them some confidence ahead of Thursday."

Labuschagne made a promising start to his Glamorgan spell, having signed as cover for Shaun Marsh, with a century on Championship debut against Northamptonshire, but in the one-day game he has enjoyed more success with ball than bat, collecting four wickets in three matches including 3 for 46 against Somerset.

He was one of the players left out of the Australia A squads to tour England with the selectors opting for most of those with county deals to continue them while the A-team one-day and four-day matches take place. Chairman of selectors Trevor Hohns said that county form would be considered equally along with how the A side performs.

"We have Joe Burns, Cameron Bancroft, Marnus Labuschagne, Matthew Renshaw, Peter Siddle and Daniel Worrall in our sights but they have not been included in the squad and will continue to play through this period with their county teams," Hohns said. "However, we have made it clear that strong form with their county teams will be taken into account for selection in the Ashes squad or the Australia v Australia A tour match."

Labuschagne is an incumbent member of the Test side having been recalled to face India in Sydney in January then played the two Tests against Sri Lanka, where he scored a maiden half-century in Brisbane, but he will face a challenge to retain his place in the squad for the Ashes with the return of David Warner and Steven Smith.

Soumya Sarkar's record-breaking unbeaten 208 propelled Abahani Limited to their 20th Dhaka Premier League title on the last day of action in Bangladesh's domestic season.

Thanks to Soumya's blazing innings, Abahani topped Sheikh Jamal Dhanmondi Club's 317 for 9 easily, winning by nine wickets and getting there with 17 balls in hand. In the process, Soumya became the first Bangladesh batsman to score a double-century in a List A game.

The 20th title, meanwhile, helped Abahani stretch their lead over Mohammedan Sporting Club in the overall DPL trophy-winners' list: they now have 12 more than their old rivals' 12.

Soumya struck 14 fours and 16 sixes in his 153-ball knock, mostly peppering the long-on, long-off and midwicket boundaries at the Bangladesh Krira Shikkha Protisthan (BKSP) No. 3 Ground, where he struck 106 in the previous game as well.

Chasing a big target in the List A game, Soumya and Jahurul Islam put up 312 for the first wicket, now a record for any wicket in the format in Bangladesh, to put their team within a stroke of victory.

Jahurul's 100 off 128 balls included seven fours and three sixes, but he was largely a support act for Soumya, who finished the game with his seventh six off Taijul Islam. He also struck legspinner Minhajul Abedin Afridi for four sixes, Nasir Hossain and Elias Sunny for two each, and Mehrab Hossain for one.

The win put Abahani on 26 points from 16 games, the same as Legends of Rupganj, who beat Prime Bank Cricket Club by 88 runs in their final game, which was played simultaneously. But Abahani's superior net run-rate (0.866 to 0.517) helped them to the top of the table. Had Rupganj beaten Abahani in their previous game, they would have lifted the trophy for the first time.

In the other Super League encounter of the day, Prime Doleshwar Sporting Club beat Mohammedan by three runs to finish third on the table.

Uttara Sporting Club and BKSP have been demoted, while Brothers Union survived the playoffs. They will now play in the Dhaka First Division Cricket League, from which Old DOHS Sports club and Partex Sporting Club earned promotion to the 2019-20 Dhaka Premier League.

Quarterback Russell Wilson, fresh off signing a four-year, $140 million contract extension with the Seattle Seahawks, is thanking each of his offensive linemen with $12,000 in Amazon stock, ESPN confirmed on Monday.

TMZ was first to report the gifts.

In a letter to all 13 of Wilson's linemen, the highest-paid player in the NFL expressed his gratitude toward the men who protect him on Sundays.

"You sacrifice your physical and mental well-being to protect me, which in turn allows me to provide and care for my family," Wilson wrote. "This does not go unnoticed and it is never forgotten."

Wilson went on to write that he wanted to give his linemen something that would have a lasting impact on their families' lives.

"You have invested in my life," Wilson wrote, "this is my investment into yours."

The 30-year-old Wilson reached an extension with the Seahawks that made him the highest-paid player in the league last week.

SALT LAKE CITY -- Houston Rockets center Clint Capela, who had perhaps his worst performance of the season in the Rockets' 107-91 Game 4 loss to the Utah Jazz on Monday, told ESPN that he has been battling two respiratory illnesses during the series.

Capela, who missed a practice due to illness days before the series started, said he was diagnosed with adenovirus and a klebsiella infection during a Sunday visit to a Salt Lake City doctor, who prescribed medication and eye drops.

Capela, whose eyes were extremely bloodshot, was told it would be another four or five days before he would be fully recovered.

"It's tough, man," Capela told ESPN after being held to four points on 1-of-6 shooting and seven rebounds in the loss. "Especially when I try to breathe, it's hard. I'm just going to fight it the best that I can."

It was a season-worst scoring total for Capela, who averaged 16.6 points and 12.7 rebounds during the regular season. He grabbed fewer than seven rebounds only twice this season.

The Rockets were outscored by 20 points in Capela's Game 4 minutes. It was his second worst plus-minus of the season behind a minus-22 in a Dec. 6 loss in Utah.

SALT LAKE CITY -- "Determination over negativity" isn't just a marketing slogan for Donovan Mitchell's Adidas signature shoe. It's a mantra for the young Utah Jazz star.

So Mitchell wasn't thinking about how much he had struggled during this Western Conference playoff series when the fourth quarter of Game 4 began with the Houston Rockets leading by four points. He just wanted to make sure the Jazz got to board a flight to Houston the next afternoon.

"I'm not trying to go home," Mitchell told ESPN after scoring 19 of his game-high 31 points in the fourth quarter of the Jazz's series-extending 107-91 win Monday night. "I'm not trying to watch the rest of these games from the couch."

Mitchell made sure the Jazz's season didn't end by single-handedly outscoring the Rockets 19-12 in the final quarter. He had a flurry of 13 points during a 15-1 run in the first few minutes of the frame that gave Utah the lead for good.

Mitchell struggled mightily as the Rockets put the Jazz in jeopardy of being swept, shooting 32.8 percent from the floor in the first few games of the series, including missing a wide-open 3-pointer that would have tied the score in Game 3 with eight seconds remaining. Mitchell's misery continued for most of Game 4, as he missed nine of his first 12 shots from the floor.

Mitchell started to warm up when he made a couple of driving layups in the third quarter, just before he got a breather for a few minutes at the end of the period.

"That's when I realized that I had to continue to be aggressive," Mitchell said. "I thought they were fouls, and they weren't, and I've got to be able to fight through contact. I said, 'All right, you're not getting nothing. You've got to be able to be even more aggressive.'"

Mitchell came out firing to start the fourth quarter, with Rockets guard Eric Gordon, his nemesis all series, resting to begin the period. Mitchell swished a 3-pointer from the left wing off a feed from Ricky Rubio on the first possession. After a Rubio floater gave the Jazz a lead, Mitchell scored 11 consecutive points -- hitting a pretty turnaround jumper after a spin move in the lane, knocking down a pair of free throws, getting a shooter's roll on a 30-footer in transition and punctuating the run with a pull-up 3.

"The confidence level goes from zero to 100," Mitchell said. "Well, I wouldn't say zero, but it just goes up crazy. For me, the biggest thing is maintaining your composure. Not just going to shoot because you can, but being able to make the right plays. I think what I was most happy with was that I didn't settle. I kept getting into the paint.

"My teammates obviously just having my back is huge, continuing to fight, fight, fight and just [encouraging me] to take the same shots I've been taking, not shying away because of my struggles."

The Jazz had been outscored by 11 with Mitchell on the floor through the first three quarters. He was plus-19 in the fourth quarter, when he was 6-of-12 from the floor, 3-of-5 from 3-point range and 4-of-4 from the free throw line.

"We made some mistakes," said Rockets coach Mike D'Antoni, whose team was 4-of-20 from the floor and 0-of-13 from 3-point range in the fourth quarter. "Left him one time on a penetration and he hits a 3. We didn't square up on another penetration, it's a layup. Just, it's us. I mean, it's him, too. I mean, he's good. He's gonna get rolling, so I'm mot worried about that if we do what we're supposed to do, but we didn't."

Mitchell scored more points in Monday's fourth quarter than he had in the final frames of the Jazz's three losses in the series. He had 13 points on 4-of-16 shooting in the first quarter of the previous three games.

"We know he's a winner," said Jazz center Rudy Gobert, who along with Derrick Favors anchored a dominant defensive performance. "It was hurting him a lot, too, after those bad games. I knew that he was gonna come out ready tonight, and he did."

Jazz reserve guard Kyle Korver felt so strongly about Mitchell after Game 3 that he made a lengthy statement without prompting in support of the second-year guard, saying he'd never seen anyone as young as the 22-year-old take ownership of a team with such charisma and class. Korver said then that the missed 3 that would have tied the game would just be part of Mitchell's journey.

Now, so is a spectacular scoring flurry in the fourth quarter to help the Jazz avoid a sweep.

"Anyone who's spent any significant amount of time with him knows that his character is as high as his talent level," Korver told ESPN. "Things happen in playoff series. We're all on this learning curve. He's early in his postseason career. It's only his second year, but this is who he is. Tough night the other night, right? It was a hard one, but we all knew that he was going to bounce back.

"And he didn't start off this game well. He didn't really get going until the fourth quarter, but every single person in our locker room had confidence that when the game was on the line, he was going to take the shots and he was going to make them."

DETROIT -- The last time the Milwaukee Bucks danced out of the first round of the playoffs, Giannis Antetokounmpo had yet to pick up a basketball.

It was 2001, Ray Allen was lighting up the court against the Philadelphia 76ers. Antetokounmpo was 7 years old and half a world away.

Fast forward 18 years.

The Bucks, led by playoff career-high 41 points from Antetokounmpo, defeated the Detroit Pistons 127-104. With the win, the Bucks completed a first-round sweep of Detroit. Milwaukee won the first game of the series 121-86, the second 120-99 and the third 119-103. Before Monday night, the Bucks had lost eight straight first-round playoff series.

"It's a good night for Milwaukee," coach Mike Budenholzer said. "It's a good night for the Bucks."

The celebrations were not overwhelming. A crowd of Bucks fans -- some holding up a Greek flag -- lollygagged, screaming "MVP" in Antetokounmpo's direction. As he exited the court, Antetokounmpo high-fived Milwaukee's general manager, Jon Horst, and the team owners.

In their postgame interviews, Antetokounmpo and Eric Bledsoe vowed to celebrate over cards on the plane back to Milwaukee.

"Hopefully I'll win a poker game and take some of Giannis' money," Bledsoe said, giggling. "We know Bud will come with a great game plan, so we will leave it up to Bud to stress over."

The Pistons didn't relent easily. Coach Dwane Casey swapped Luke Kennard out of the starting line up in place of Bruce Brown, giving Detroit's second unit a shooting boost. The Pistons built a double-digit lead early in the first quarter. But by the end of the period, their lead had been slashed to two. The two teams exchanged points in the second quarter -- the lead bobbling back and forth.

At the half, the Pistons led by six. The Bucks found their stride in the middle of the third quarter. The Pistons were plagued by foul trouble and sent the Bucks to the free throw line 16 times in the third quarter alone. By the end of the third, Detroit's advantage had disappeared. Less than one minute into the fourth, the Bucks had built a 15-point lead.

From there, Blake Griffin fouled out and the Bucks never looked back.

"We just had to weather the storm," Bledsoe said. "At the end of the day, they didn't want to get swept. We knew they was going to come out aggressive."

While players were clearly excited to have won, there was also a feeling of inevitability that hung in the locker room. The Bucks had, after all, swept the Pistons in the regular season and beat them by double digits in every game. With the Game 4 win, the Bucks tied the 1986 Lakers for the second-highest point differential in a series sweep in NBA history, according to ESPN Stats & Information research.

Milwaukee was also the second team in postseason history to win their first four playoff games by at least 15 points, joining the 1980 Celtics.

The Bucks have said all the right things this series: that they are determined not to get ahead of themselves. Players said they are taking the playoffs one game at a time. Budenholzer said he found no solace in the fact that his team swept the Pistons in the regular season, and that they are not focused on what will happen in the second round because they needed to take care of business against the Pistons first. Now business is taken care of and it's on to the next one.

The Boston Celtics loom ahead.

Last year, the Celtics were the Bucks' playoff death knell. Milwaukee fell to Boston in a seven-game series -- the last of which took place at TD Garden. Bledsoe struggled in that series, shooting just 44 percent from the field.

This year's Boston/Milwaukee series will have some new faces. The Bucks added Brook Lopez to their starting lineup and signed veteran depth with George Hill and Nikola Mirotic. Last year, Gordon Hayward and Kyrie Irving were sidelined with injuries for the Celtics.

At least for one night, the Bucks say they will try to put off worrying about their future opponent.

"We're going to enjoy this win tonight," Bledsoe said. "And worry about them tomorrow."