Dallas – The Dallas Mavericks survived an attack in the last seconds to defeat the Utah Jazz 111-103 in a sensational postseason game in the Western Conference.
The truth is that dueling was “just” another game of the regular season, but it could have serious watershed effects beyond the fact that aspirations to be placed in one of the four featured places in the conference are looking more and more realistic.
Right now, Dallas is playing half a game out of fourth in the West, behind the Jazz. The annual series between them is even and will be set on March 27, at the Mavericks home, the scene of a duel on Monday.
“It was a great match. At one point (the Jazz) we had two or three games. It was good (the two wins) to bring us together,” he said. Luka Doncic after the meeting. “So, you know, these games are going to make a difference for us at some point.”
The Slovenian scored what appeared to be “normal” 35 points and played an impressive game with 16 rebounds, his most in the current season, and seven assists, after he was unable to play in last Saturday’s match due to injuries to his left ankle.
Doncic capitalized on Monday to become the 10th leading scorer in Mavericks history with 6,485 points in less than four seasons, including the 2019-20 season, which was cut short by the pandemic and ended inside the Orlando bubble.
“It’s unbelievable what this guy is doing so quickly,” Mavericks coach Jason Kidd said. It’s been less than four years… Luca is preparing more and more and better in the big matches.”
Doncic was on loan before Spencer Dinwiddy (23 points), who seems to be adapting increasingly to the game of Kidd and his teammates and anyone can tell he’s been in Dallas for a long time, but the truth is that he’s at his last trading date.
For the Mavericks, the victory over the Jazz extends their winning streak to five, seventh in eight games and eleventh in their last 13 games.
Victory did not come without some fear. Dallas squandered a 17-point lead with less than nine minutes to go and dropped to six with 1:08 and 31 seconds, but the Mavericks sealed the win when Dinwiddle made three straight free throws.
“When we are in tune together, good things happen to us,” Dinwiddy said. “Sometimes it can be Luca, other times me or any of the boys. I feel better every time here. Physically the Western Conference is tough, but games like this are great.”
for jazz, Donovan Mitchell He added 17 points, 9 assists and four rebounds, Rudy Gobert 12 units, 13 follow-ups and Bojan Bogdanovic 21 points.
Joubert played despite being listed as suspect with a left calf injury. The same thing he suffered from stress caused him to lose nine matches.
The Mavericks will be looking to finish a four-game home on Wednesday when they host the New York Knicks, before heading out on a five-game road trip involving four teams from the Eastern Conference.