The Dallas Mavericks gave it everything they had in Game 1 of their opening round playoff series with the Utah Jazz on Saturday afternoon, but the absence of star Luka Doncic, and the scoring punch he provides, was simply too much to overcome.
The postseason tipped off with a tight battle, and the game came down to the final minute, but Utah’s strong shooting and the scoring of their star Donovan Mitchell, who had 11 of his game-high 32 points in the fourth, kept the Mavs at bay as Utah secured a 99-93 victory at American Airlines Center. Spencer Dinwiddie stepped in admirably with Doncic out. The veteran guard was inserted into the starting lineup and had a solid performance, scoring 22 points paired with eight assists to pace Dallas.
After the game, Coach Jason Kidd lauded his team’s effort on the defensive end while lamenting their inability to convert opportunities on the offensive end to win a game that was there for the taking.
“I thought the game plan was great,” coach Kidd said. “They didn’t score 100 points and when you do that in today’s basketball, that tends to give you a chance to win. But we just didn’t have enough offensive power, down the stretch.”
The Mavs opening the postseason at home for the first time in 10 years made for an electric atmosphere inside American Airlines Center on Saturday afternoon, and the Mavs fed off their energy early.
Halfway through a back and forth first quarter Dallas started to make a run. Dinwiddie found Jalen Brunson for a quick two and after a Utah basket, Reggie Bullock located Dorian Finney-Smith for a corner three. Moments later Dwight Powell found Bullock for a three of his own. Those buckets were a part of a 13-4 Mavs run, which was capped by another three from Finney-Smith to give Dallas a 19-12 lead, 19-12. However, Utah closed the quarter strong and Dallas was up just three, 23-20 after one.
The Jazz took advantage of Dallas’ shooting struggles in the second frame. Despite struggling from the field, the Mavs held onto their lead for most of the quarter and after a couple of Brunson free throws Dallas had a nine point lead, 41-32. But Utah would not be denied in the closing stages of the half. Bojan Bogdanovic scored 10 of his 12 points in the closing minutes and the Jazz went into halftime on a 13-2 run to build a 45-43 advantage. Dallas shot 8-of-21 which opened the door for the Jazz to take the lead.
Out of halftime, the Dallas duo of Brunson and Dinwiddie kept things close, but halfway through the third Mitchell took over the game. At one point the Utah star scored six consecutive points for the Jazz, pushing their lead to 12, 68-56. The shooting struggles continued for the Mavs as they hit just 6-of-17 attempts from the field in the third quarter. Mitchell, who got off to a slow start but had all but two of his points in the second half, knocked down more shots in the third quarter (7) than the Mavericks did as a team and finished with 19 points for the quarter as the Jazz entered the final frame up eight.
J-Kidd coached his team to be resilient and even though they were without Doncic, the Mavs fought the entire fourth quarter. Halfway through the fourth Dallas started chopping away at Utah’s lead. At one point, Dallas had four possessions that led to trips to the charity stripe, and they converted 8-of-9 free throws. Following the trips to the line, Finney-Smith found Bullock for a three-pointer to pull the Mavs within two. Moments later, Maxi Kleber buried a clutch three that cut the deficit to one, 92-91, and a stop on the other end had Dallas primed to take the lead. However, Kleber missed a three that would’ve given them the advantage with 1:35 to go and they never got that close again.
Despite his slow start, Mitchell was not going to allow the Jazz to lose the game. In the final minute he found Royce O’Neale for a three pointer and then he hit a couple free throws to give Utah a six point lead, 97-91. Despite a late Finney-Smith three-pointer the Jazz were able to ice the game with free throws to take game one with a 99-93 victory. An underlying factor to the loss was getting outworked on the boards, as Utah grabbed 53 rebounds to Dallas’ 34 rebounds, but Coach Kidd was not worried about the team’s execution and believes they will make the necessary adjustments for game two.
“We talked about it before the game and through the week, we’ve got to rebound the ball,” Coach Kidd said. “We got [Mitchell] to miss, we just have to do a better job [with the small lineup] to come back and help. That’s something, again, that we knew that was going to be an issue, especially playing small, but I thought the guys fought.. If we can do that, that hopefully puts us in a better seat to win.”