The Dallas Mavericks beat the Utah Jazz 111–103 on Monday night in Dallas. The Mavericks are within striking distance of the Jazz in the standings, so the game felt like a playoff game from the get-go.
However, the Jazz had their second night in a row, as well as their fourth game in six nights and their last game of five games. It was obvious from the start that their legs were tired, and if the Mavericks stayed aggressive and stuck to their game plan, victory would be easy to secure.
The first half went just like that. The Mavericks were faster at catching every ball they lost, but more importantly, took care of the ball themselves. The Jazz had nine losses in the first half, compared to four for the Mavericks. When teams get tired, they mess around with the ball, and that’s exactly what happened to Utah early on.
The second half was about the same, although the Jazz cut their losses. But it was clear that the Jazz had tired legs and simply couldn’t match the Mavericks. They stayed in the game, throwing things around and hitting the paint, but in the end, Dallas outplayed them for the full 48 minutes.
Here are three observations from the game:
Rudy Gobert usually makes life miserable for the Mavericks, but today they solved that problem.
Today, the Jazz has used Gobert in many different ways. Sometimes he was in the cover zone, hovering on the free throw line when the Mavericks put up screens for Luka. On other occasions, he would meet Luca or Spencer Dinwiddie even at the screen and hold off basket jumps (usually when Dwight Powell was on the floor). When Josh Green was on the court, Gobert allegedly protected him, but in reality he was just playing safety near the basket, blocking the path for Luka’s shots. Sometimes they switched screens and let Gobert fight Luka one-on-one.
Gobert’s length and mobility allows the Jazz to stay at home on the Mavericks’ shooters, preventing penetration to the rim. They’re willing to let role players like Dorian Finney-Smith and Maxie Kleber throw 3-pointers while Gobert sags in the paint. Today, the Mavericks role players hit the mark.
The Mavericks also made small changes to clean up the paint. They used Gobert’s man to place screens for Luka higher on the floor to draw Gobert out further, or staggered screens over the break, forcing Gobert to make more decisions about where to go for defense. Perhaps more importantly, Luca simply outplayed Gobert when he went into lockdown. Dallas forced Gobert to defend more space than he could, and it paid off.
Spencer Dinwiddie brings the Mavericks to a new dimension
At the start of this season, everyone was saying the Mavericks needed a second ball carrier to take the pressure off Luka. Goran Dragic seemed like the best option, but the Mavericks never agreed to move him to Dallas. But then Jalen Brunson had his breakout year, and suddenly the Mavericks didn’t need Dragik. The only problem was that there were times when Brunson was held back and it always seemed to be against teams with long and defensive skills. Playoff teams, in other words.
When the Mavericks traded for Dinwiddie, no one knew what to expect. He was terrible with the Washington Wizards, but then again, the Wizards weren’t basketball heaven. We now know that Dinwiddie had more options than many thought, and perhaps his poor performance was a combination of recovering from an ACL tear and a less-than-ideal basketball situation.
The thing is, he has the same skill set and game play as Brunson, but he’s just bigger. Sometimes basketball is that simple. Brunson may be the best defender right now, but Dinwiddie can finish off stronger defenders in a way that Brunson can’t. Dinwiddie gives the Mavericks the comfort of versatility. He can fill the role of secondary playmaker that the Mavericks needed, regardless of the size of the opposition. If Dallas faces a team with a smaller guard who is faster than Dinwiddie, they may choose Brunson instead.
Jazz was not very popular for Dinwiddie. He finished in the paint tonight, something Brunson hasn’t done consistently against quality playoff teams, scoring 23 points on 15 shots. Having both Dinwiddie and Brunson on the lineup is a luxury.
The Mavericks have surpassed the Jazz and sometimes it’s that easy
The Jazz are seventh in the NBA in three-point shooting, shooting 36% from deep. The Mavericks, on the other hand, are in 20th place, shooting only 34% of three-pointers. But today, Dallas had 17 of 46 and the Jazz had 13 of 30. Dallas hit enough 3-pointers to win the game.
Again, Yuta’s game plan was to wall off the paint and see if the Mavericks role players could beat them. Dinwiddie and Finney-Smith did it today. The Jazz wanted to get Luka to shoot deep threes instead of feasting under the rim. He landed those deep shots, making 5 of 11 from behind the arc.
The Jazz fled at the end of the fourth quarter. Cause? The Mavericks shot from 40% deep in the first three quarters to 22% in the fourth. Dallas only went 2 of 9 on three points in the final period. If not for the hot shooting early in the game, the Mavericks could have lost.
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