Since taking over as Head Coach of the Dallas Mavericks last summer, in his conversations with the team, Jason Kidd has preached two things: trust and belief in one another.

Those two characteristics have become mantras of the Mavs, repeated ad nauseum throughout the season. On Thursday night in front of one of the most hostile crowds in the NBA, we saw why they are so important to the success of the Mavericks, values that could carry them far in the 2022 Playoffs.

Though superstar Luka Doncic remained sidelined Thursday with a calf injury, trust and belief in one another helped the Mavericks pull off their second straight win of their best of seven series with the Utah Jazz. Led once again by Jalen Brunson, the Mavs defeated the Jazz by a score of 126-118, Dallas’ first win in Utah in more than six years.

Brunson scored 31 points in the win, but also briefly was forced to leave the floor with an injury late in the first half, and in his brief stead his teammates stepped up. Spencer Dinwiddie had 20 points and six assists. Josh Green pitched in 12 and 6. Davis Bertans added 15 points. Dorian Finney Smith had 14 and eight rebounds. The Mavs have weathered the absence of Doncic by coming together as a team, in pursuit of a common goal and after the game Coach Kidd lauded them for the trust and belief they’ve shown in each other.

“It doesn’t work if your guys don’t trust you. And I trust every one of those guys that put on a uniform,” Jason said. “My job is to help put them in a position to be successful. Sometimes that works, sometimes that doesn’t. But I just truly think the communication…being able to talk about, even when we lose, how can we get better? That’s the cool thing about that group. It’s about them. It’s not about the coaches. We’re here to just try to help and they do the work.”

Utah’s Vivint Arena is widely recognized as one of the toughest buildings to play in on the road in the league. But the Mavericks weren’t fazed by that, or by the fact that, prior to Thursday Dallas hadn’t won there since April 11, 2016. In fact, the Mavs had Utah’s loud and notoriously hostile crowd quiet early.

Led by Brunson, Maxi Kleber, who is starting to gain a reputation as a postseason sharpshooter extraordinaire, and Josh Green, the Mavericks outscored Utah 27-20 in the opening frame. Brunson was at it early, helping to erase an early three-point deficit with back-to-back buckets. After Utah’s Jordan Clarkson followed with a pair of his own to put the Jazz back in front, Kleber got going, burying his first three of the night. Hassan Whiteside answered with a dunk off an assist from Clarkson to tie the score at 11-11 with under five minutes to go in the quarter.

However, that was the last time Utah would have even a share of the lead for the rest of the evening. Kleber followed with another three, then Dorian Finney-Smith got into the act off an assist from Green. The came another Kleber three, followed closely by two from Green, sandwiched around a pair of Brunson free throws. Just three minutes removed from an 11-11 tie, Dallas had a 27-18 lead. They led 27-20 after one.

“Our bench was big. When you look at Maxi, he’s shooting the ball well. But it’s just not Maxi,” Coach Kidd said. “This is what makes this team special is that Josh had those looks in the first two games and his teammates truly told him that he has to shoot it, which is the right play. Today they went in…Josh in that first half was incredible, not just shooting the ball but his playmaking. He had six assists.”

Bertans opened up the second quarter with a three, got fouled and made it a four-point play at the line, and when Green hit another trey just two minutes into the second, the Dallas advantage was up to 15.

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Dallas’ lead hovered around 10-15 points for much of the second quarter until an untimely injury to Brunson threatened to stunt their momentum. While waiting on a potential rebound off a shot from Utah’s Mike Conley Jr., Brunson took a forearm to the back from Jazz forward Royce O’Neale and went down in a heap. No foul was called on O’Neale, but Brunson was assessed a technical for pleading his case before walking directly to the locker room.

The budding point guard, who has been a key to keeping Dallas afloat without Doncic, did not return for the remaining five minutes of the half. However, rather than crumble or even press, the Mavericks were undeterred. Utah did trim the Dallas lead down to nine points, but Reggie Bullock stopped their momentum with a trey to make it a 12-point game again.

The Mavs got going again from there, and over the final 2:02 of the half, Bullock, Spencer Dinwiddie and Bertans all connected from beyond the arc. Bertans hit two straight from deep in the final minute, and Dallas took a 68-51 lead in at half.

“The beauty of this team is, [Brunson] was out and we finished the half without him. That just shows again, without Luka, without JB, we just continue to keep believing in “team” and “we,” Coach Kidd said. “Right now we’re shooting the ball extremely well from three. We got some great looks. It’s just an unselfish team and we always believe the guys are going to make the right play and we also believe and talk about on the daily that we’re going to get an open shot and that’s what we got tonight.”

Brunson returned to start the third and Dallas needed him because Utah would not go down without a fight. They scored the first five points of the quarter to keep the game within reach and seemed to have an answer every time the Mavericks attempted to pull away.

Dallas held a double-digit lead for much of the quarter, but the Jazz, which shot an incredible 78 percent from the field (14-of-18) and perfect 8-of-8 from the free throw line in the fourth finally started to cut into the Mavs lead at the end of the third. Donovan Mitchell, who scored a game-high 32 points, poured in 18 in the third quarter alone, and at one point scored eight straight in a span of 90 seconds to pull the Jazz within seven. At the end of the third, Dallas was clinging to a 97-91 lead.

“It’s been like that for us all season. Basketball is about runs. We made our run early,” Coach Kidd said. That third quarter, they came out and they hit us. It would’ve been easy for us to just give up the lead and say hey we gotta come back Saturday.”

But the Mavs would do no such thing. The fourth quarter was a battle. But perhaps just due to the unsustainable tempt of the middle quarters — Dallas scored 41 points in the second and Utah scored 40 in the third — the pace slowed just a bit in the final frame.

Mitchell started the fourth with a trip to the free throw line where he sank both to pull Utah within four. The teams traded scores from there, the margin alternating between 6 and 4 until, just about halfway through the frame Conley buried a three to make it a one-point game, 103-102. However, Dallas answered with a bucket from Dinwiddie and after they got a stope, Dinwiddie, who scored 10 of his 20 in the final quarter, got another look at the bucket and scored to make it 107-102 with under six minutes remaining.

“They made their run there in the third and fourth, and we kept our composure. That’s the character in that locker room. We just kept playing. We made timely shots but we got timely stops,” Coach Kidd said. “Those guys fought and truly believed. They put themselves in a position to win.”

Brunson went on to score the next six Dallas points to push the lead to nine with three minutes remaining. Utah clawed back within seven with a minute and a half to go and might have had a chance if they got one more stop, but at the end of the shot clock, being guarded one-on-one by O’Neale, Dinwiddie took a step back and fired off a long three that swished the net, providing the dagger Dallas needed to take a 2-1 series lead.

“Spencer and JB, you look at those two, they have the ball, there’s no panic,” Coach Kidd said. “We always believe that we’re going to make the right play. Share the ball on the offensive end and that we’re going to help each other on the defensive end. In a hostile environment, against a very good team that’s well coached, we put ourselves in a position to win the game and we found a way in that fourth just to stay together and make plays…I truly believe that’s just the trust. Make or miss, guys are making the right play. No one is really forcing things and that’s a beautiful thing to watch.”

The Mavs will have the opportunity to take a commanding 3-1 series lead when the teams reconvene at Vivint Arena on Saturday afternoon for Game 4. Doncic’s availability for the game will once again be a game-time decision, but regardless of his star’s playing status, Coach Kidd will have his team ready to play like their backs are against the wall.

“I just told the guys, we haven’t done anything. They won at our place and now we’ve won here. So now we’ve got to put this game behind us and figure out what we can do better. This is a quick turnaround, Saturday afternoon is going to come quick,” he said. “There is no ceiling on this team. We’re playing as a team. We win or lose as a team. We just try to get better the next time we take the floor. We’re too young to have a ceiling. You’ve got a lot of 20-year-olds in that locker room. They love to play the game together and they share the ball, make the right basketball plays and they really cheer for one another and that’s what makes this team special.”

Tip-off on Saturday is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. CT and the game can be seen on TNT.