Dallas • Have the Jazz learned the Texas two-step?
After a scintillating win in Houston on Sunday night, they took the quick flight to Dallas and led nearly wire-to-wire on the second night of a back-to-back to win 123-119 on Monday.
That’s not to say it was smooth sailing all the way. Utah got off to a hot start early, taking advantage of Luka Doncic’s absence on one end and scoring down low on the other. In fact, the Jazz scored 20 points in the paint in the first quarter. They found Rudy Gobert down low, and Bojan Bogdanovic consistently found a way to finish over, around, or under the outstretched arms of 7-foot-3 Kristaps Porzingis.
And it only accelerated in the second. In that quarter, the Jazz scored 39 points to complete their best half in weeks, completely dominating the Mavericks’ defense. It didn’t seem like the Mavericks’ individual defenders had a prayer of staying in front of Bogdanovic, Donovan Mitchell or Jordan Clarkson, each of whom had at least 14 points in the half.
The Jazz were feeling so good, in fact, they started to pull some tricks. On one notable play, with Porzingis closely guarding Bogdanovic in the corner, the man who hit the game-winning buzzer beater against Houston circled the ball all the way around one of Porzingis’ legs, seemingly just for the fun of it.
“I was all the way in the corner, so I was trying to find a solution of how to try to get by,” Bogdanovic explained with a big grin. It’s easy to feel that way when your team is up 20."
Dallas wasn’t happy with its first-half effort, though, and bounced back in the second half. The Mavericks made a run as soon as halftime warmups ended, as the Jazz seemingly lost their ability to consistently defend. The Mavs even got the Jazz lead down to 3, thanks to a barrage of shots from Tim Hardaway Jr., who scored 14 in the quarter.
Utah’s bench bounced back, and it was the unlikely tandem of Clarkson and Mudiay who re-established control. Despite not being known as defensive players, both made important defensive plays to finally earn some stops. And on the offensive end, they went to work. Mudiay made layups and threes, and Clarkson performed his usual assortment of profitable drives. All of a sudden, the lead was safe again, back to 16 at the end of the 3rd.
“We missed some shots and we lost our focus on defense, but then our bench did a really good job in the second half picking that up,” Jazz assistant Alex Jensen said. Jensen spoke at the traditional postgame press conference instead of Snyder, who had completely lost his voice over the last couple of days.
It seemed like that would be enough, but Dallas proved resilient again. Once again, the Mavericks’ starters went on a run, this one a 12-0 burst that cut the lead to just five with three minutes left. The Jazz’s best players did enough in the end, though: Bogdanovic hit a staredown three over Seth Curry, Gobert’s powerful dunk over Porzingis answered the run a second time, then a big Mitchell fadeaway shot over two defenders ensured their survival.
"We weren’t scared. It wasn’t 'Here it goes again,’ Mitchell explained. “It was ‘How do we fix it?’ ”
Two Mavericks led all scorers: Hardaway’s 33-point performance and Porzingis’ 28 points paced Dallas. Utah countered with more balanced scoring. Clarkson scored 25, while Mitchell and Bogdanovic both had 23.
Dallas’ loss meant a continuation of its bizarre home-road split. After the game, they’re now only .500 at the American Airlines Center with a 14-14 record; they’re 18-8 on the road with the 3rd-best record in the league.
The win was a big one for Utah, continuing a redemption tour of sorts after the five-game losing streak last week. They’ve now won three in a row, solidifying their fourth-place spot and making a run for third — though Denver’s late comeback from a 23-point deficit against San Antonio meant the Jazz made no forward progress in that battle.
