The Dallas Mavericks beat the Utah Jazz 98-96 on Thursday to win the series 4-2 and advance to the second round of the playoffs for the first time since the franchise’s 2011 championship-winning season. The Mavericks will now face the top-seeded Phoenix Suns in the second round.
Utah Jazz forward Bojan Bogdanovic missed an open three-pointer with 1.9 seconds remaining that would have won them the game.
“Bogey don’t miss a lot of those. My heart stopped. It felt like that shot was 15 seconds in the air,” said Luka Doncic, who had 24 points, nine rebounds, and eight assists. It was his 12th 20-point, five-rebound, five-assist playoff game, the most in Mavericks history.
“Just happiness, man,” Doncic said. “We worked really hard to get here. I think we deserve to move past [the] first round and everybody fought their ass off today. I think we didn’t play good today, but everybody was fighting, everybody stuck together, and keeping everybody together was the key to this game.”
Jalen Brunson added 24 points, while Spencer Dinwiddie had 19 points, and Dorian Finney-Smith scored a playoff career-high 18 points to provide much-needed production as Utah made a concerted effort to force the ball out of Doncic’s hands.
“It was all about trust,” Dallas coach Jason Kidd said. “Luka did an incredible job knowing they were going to try and take the ball out of his hands.”
A three-pointer from Finney-Smith early in the fourth quarter gave Dallas their largest lead of the game at 88-80 before the Jazz scored eight straight to tie the game with 4:04 remaining,
Doncic assisted Finney-Smith for another three with 3:59 remaining to break the 88-88 tie. Doncic added a three of his own on the next possession. Then he assisted Brunson on a three-pointer with 2:03 remaining to take a three-point lead (97-94).
“Playing with Luka the past couple years, I should expect the ball when I’m not expecting it. The ball found me,” Brunson said of his clutch three-pointer.
Brunson averaged 27.8 points in the series and kept the Mavericks ahead of the Jazz until Doncic returned from a calf injury in Game Three. Mavericks fans will remember his 41-point performance in Game Two for a long-time.
“We got everything we could out of JB. To start the series without Luka and have JB and Spencer carry us until he got back and then make to switch to play with Luka. He was really big for us,” Kidd said.
After Brunson’s three-pointer, the following made basket was Utah’s Rudy Gobert converting a lay-up with 35.9 seconds remaining to cut the Dallas lead to 97-96. Doncic missed a tough shot on the next possession, then Jazz guard Mike Conley drove the ball into the paint as the final seconds ticked off the clock. Unfortunately for Utah, he picked up his dribble and moved his pivot foot, leading officials to call a travel.
The Jazz intentionally fouled Brunson on the Mavericks’ ensuing in-bound pass. Brunson made one of two free throws with 4.3 seconds to play. Then the Jazz got the open look for Bogdanovic on the final play, but he could not connect.
Bogdanovic finished with 19 points but could not make the shot that would have won it. Donovan Mitchell added 23 points, nine assists, and eight rebounds for Utah.
Thanks to a sluggish first half, Dallas had to overcome a double-digit deficit again. The Mavericks missed their first ten three-point attempts, scored just 15 points in the first quarter, and allowed the Jazz to finish the period on a 7-0 run. Utah then closed the second quarter on an 18-5 run, and the Mavericks entered halftime down 53-41.
“Our shoulders were up by our ears we were so tense,” Kidd said.
Dallas found its rhythm in the third quarter, as they opened the period on a 12-4 run to trim the Jazz lead to four points. Doncic had 10 points in the quarter, and the Mavericks made 8-of-12 from three-point range to outscore Utah 36-19 in the third quarter. Dallas closed the quarter on a 13-2 run to take a 77-72 lead into the fourth quarter.
“For guys like me, that’s when I start smiling,” Finney-Smith said about the explosive third quarter. “That’s when we get our spot-up shots. Luka causes so much pressure and then he finds guys.”
The Mavericks held on in the fourth and completed their NBA-best 19th win after trailing by ten or more points this season, including Game Two of this series. Utah, meanwhile, lost 16 times in the regular season after leading by ten or more points.
Dallas made 14-of-25 (56%) three-pointers after halftime.
“We feel like we can do something great this year, so we all expected to get this win,” Finney-Smith said.
The Mavericks now turn their attention to the Suns. The teams will open the second round Monday at 9 p.m. CT in Phoenix. Game Two is at 9 p.m. Wednesday, and Game Three is scheduled for 8:30 p.m. on May 6 in Dallas. The time for Game Four on May 8 is TBD.