Dear Utah jazz fans:
Take a deep breath. To calm oneself down. Imagine you are Martin Lawrence in “Bad Boys II” and you say “Woosah”. meditate Take a hot yoga class. Anything that allows you to step away from the proverbial edge.
Yes, the Jazz fell Monday night in Game 2 of a Western Conference first round series against the Dallas Mavericks 110-104. Yes, the Mavericks performed the Jazz with a small ball lineup that turned Maxi Kleber into Larry Bird. And yes, the Jazz had a chance to take a 2-0 lead but instead returned home with a 1-1 draw.
But these things happen. Did anyone think that even without Luka Dončić, the Mavericks are some kind of pushovers? Anyone thought Dallas would be one of the best teams in the league after January, wouldn’t it be real? Did anyone think jazz would sweep the series? If you answered yes to any of these questions, that is sheer folly.
Teams that win 50 games in the NBA are good. And Dallas is a very, very good team. Yes, there could be PTSD at play, as the Mavericks batted home 22 3-pointers Monday night, 17(!) of which were undisputed. But these things happen. A desperate team that has already given up home advantage. A sell-out crowd at the American Airlines Center hopped on caffeine. An insane shooting game where the Mavericks got up 47 3s. In a series like this, each game will take on a life of its own.
So off Twitter, jazz fans. The season is not over yet. It’s just beginning. It will take a long time. It’s hotly contested. It probably won’t be easy for anyone. So jazz has to figure out what went wrong and why – and that’s the easy part. The harder part is figuring out how to adjust.
“The good thing is that this is Game 2 and not Game 6 where the series is at stake,” said Utah center Rudy Gobert. “We have plenty of time to film, see what we did wrong and try to fix it.”
The diagnosis is easy. Jazz has been boiled over and over again from dribbling. The dreaded small lineup Utah would eventually have to fight this series? It came pretty early. And the formula was simple: either Jalen Brunson, who posted a career-high 41 points, or Spencer Dinwiddie isolates at the top of the key. Four Mavericks players – Dorian Finney-Smith, Reggie Bullock, either Brunson or Dinwiddie, and Kleber – surround the 3-point line. The main ball handler got past his man, pulled Gobert into the suit on his assist side, and kicked out for an open 3.
The last five minutes, in which the Jazz lost the game, showed this formula with every possession. Donovan Mitchell, Mike Conley, Royce O’Neale, Jordan Clarkson: No one could stay ahead of the dribble when it mattered most. Only Daniel House Jr. could do that, and he’ll likely have to play heavier minutes as the series progresses.
But these are the main players for Utah, the guys who have to play tough minutes. So either they’ll get better at point-of-attack defense or the series will be jeopardized. Then Jazz Twitter’s panic will be justified.
“At the end of the day, we have to be more careful,” Mitchell said. “In the end we have to stay ahead. I don’t see this as if it was last year. Last year I had a bad ankle and Mike had a bad Achilles tendon. That? This year we can fix that. So we go back and try to fix it and see what we can do better in the end.”
The Jazz knew he had to defend small lineups. You know that’s Dallas’ counter to Gobert dominating the suit. At the same time, the Mavericks played a remarkable game on Monday night. Getting 22 of 47 from 3-point range is difficult, even if all shots were wide open.
Brunson gets on the trail and loses 41 points on 15-of-25 shooting? Man. Listen, Brunson is a great player and he’s going to make a lot of money this summer. But 41 points on 15 out of 25 from the field is a bit extreme. And how about Dallas flipping the ball three times in 48 minutes? This was the entry point into Villanova’s 1985 national title game territory.
And you know what? Jazz still had a chance to win.
In the second half they led by double digits (shocker). They led by seven points in the fourth quarter. At halftime in the fourth quarter, they were leading with multiple possessions. Sometimes the jazz was in control. But they tired the track. Mitchell played 22 minutes of the second half, resulting in him shooting 3 of 11 in the fourth quarter. Conley just didn’t have it at both ends of the court on Monday night, struggling with constant foul problems that rattled the rotation.
But the Jazz got what they wanted, even if the end of the game looked ugly. They split the first two games. They won home field advantage against the Mavericks. You have the next two in Vivint Arena.
“So we’re not going to overreact,” Mitchell said. “We’re going home and we need to find a way to do business at home. They’re going to try to get a breakup just like we got a breakup in Dallas.”
If that part changes, if the Mavericks win one or even two on the street, the tenor of this narrative changes. But by this point, jazz had a successful trip to Dallas. You have to support it by protecting your house floor, which will not be easy. The playoffs are difficult; this is the game. Teams are good and Dallas is a good team.
So, jazz fans, exhale. Game 3 is Thursday night. The series is stuck at 1-1. The Mavericks got what they needed and they deserve a lot of credit.
Now it’s Utah’s turn to adapt. Let’s see if the Jazz can do that for Game 3.
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(Photo by Donovan Mitchell: Glenn James / NBAE via Getty Images)