DALLAS, TX – The Dallas Mavericks (46-29) beat the Utah Jazz (45-3) 114-100 in American Airlines Center on Sunday night. With this win Dallas takes the fourth seed in the NBA playoffs. This was a big win for Dallas.
Dallas started the game off slow on the offensive production side of things. Besides Luka Doncic everyone else was pretty quiet, which has been a trend for Dallas lately. Doncic had 10 of Dallas’s 19 points in the first quarter. The Mavericks ended up losing that quarter 29-21. Surprising given the fact that we know when Luka does everything we don’t get far? No.
The Mavericks continued to trail the entire second quarter and entered the locker room at the half down one, 59-58 due to a buzzer beater shot three-pointer made by Doncic.
Doncic led with 21 points going into the second half. Reggie Bullock added 14 points at the half.
Mavs open the third quarter going on a 14-4 run taking a 72-63 lead forcing Utah to take a timeout. Doncic dominated the third quarter giving Dallas a 11-point lead entering the fourth.
The fourth quarter was exactly like the third, Dallas found some chemistry within their offense and it was off to the races from there. The Mavs gave up only nine points to the Jazz in the first seven minutes of play. They outscored Utah 24-21 in the fourth quarter and 56-41 in the second half.
The biggest difference in the first half and the second half was team effort. The first half was all Doncic offensively and that has proven time and time again that that doesn’t work. Dallas made a comeback in the third and it started with other players stepping up and producing on offense.
Reggie Bullock and Jalen Brunson started to get hot and to top things off Spencer Dinwiddie stepped in off the bench to add another 12 points for Dallas. Reggie Bullock had 23 points on the night and hit seven three-pointers. Jalen Brunson added 22 points.
Luka Doncic ended the night with 32 points, 10 rebounds, and five assists.
The Dallas Mavericks will stay in Dallas and host the Lakers on Tuesday night in American Airlines Center. Tip off is set for 6:30 PM.
