DALLAS, TX – Preseason games have officially started for the NBA and the Dallas Mavericks hosted the Utah Jazz on Wednesday night. The Mavericks pulled away with a 111-101 win.
Dallas won the tip and the Mavs followed that up with a slam dunk from Moses Brown by the assist from Tim Hardaway Jr. for the first play of the game. Both teams went back and forth for the first seven minutes. With five minutes remaining in the quarter the Jazz started to pull away.
The Mavs started to look a little sleepy and Utah took their largest lead at the end of the quarter. Utah went up 12 points and the Mavs started the second quarter down 31-22.
Luka Doncic turned it up in the second quarter scoring 19 points in the first half. The Mavericks won the quarter 39-25 and went into the locker room up five, 61-56. The Mavericks shot 50 percent from the floor, 41 percent from beyond the arc, and 66 percent from the freethrow line.
The Mavs came into the second half on top of their game. They went on a 17-2 run and took control for the remainder of the game. Dallas outscored Utah 31-18 and seconds before the third quarter ended, the fans favorite, Boban Marjanovic hit two three-pointers to push the Mavs into the fourth quarter up 92-74. Marjanovic was the second leading scorer of the night behind Doncic with 14 points, 3 rebounds, and 1 assist.
Utah won the fourth quarter, outscoring the Mavs 27-19 but Dallas had already done too much damage and the Mavs took home the first preseason win of the season.
The Mavs had 58 points in the paint tonight and a significant amount of their offense was down low.
“We are going to have a balanced offense and not just rely on the three’s.” Head coach Jason Kidd stated in the post game press conference.
Kidd said that he wants his guys to play all around basketball and doesn’t want them to just rely on the outside shot. He said that outside shooting can come and go, and explained that some days it’s there and some days it won’t be there so they need to know how to use the paint when their shot isn’t falling.
The Mavs ended the night shooting 47 percent from the floor, 36 percent from beyond the arc, and 70 percent from the free throw line.
Luka Doncic and Kristaps Porzingis only played the first half.
The Mavs will continue their preseason play on Friday in American Airlines Center against the Los Angeles Clippers. Tip off is set for 7:30 p.m.
KEY PLAYER:
Luka Doncic led tonight with 19 points, 6 rebounds, and 5 assists.
Boban Marjanovic had 14 points, 3 rebounds, and 1 assist.
