Mavericks vs. Jazz Recap: Dallas escapes Utah with 106-94 win

It wasn’t pretty, but the Dallas Mavericks took care of business in Salt Lake City on Saturday night, beating the Utah Jazz 106-94.

Dallas has now won seven of its last eight games after a four-game losing streak dropped the team to two games below .500 at 5-7. The Mavericks are now 12-8 and climb the Western Conference standings – Dallas sits in sole possession of fifth place after the win.

The Mavericks throttled the Jazz early and honestly made it look like this was going to be a cakewalk from the opening tip. The Mavericks raced out to a 20-point lead in the first quarter after nine made three-pointers, four of which came from Quintin Grimes. Dallas couldn’t miss early and led 40-22 after one quarter.

From that point on, the game became muddy and ugly. The Mavericks didn’t really change their approach from the opening minutes of the game and just kept shooting threes without touching the paint. Defensively, the team wasn’t very connected after the first quarter, and Utah crept back into the game by outscoring Dallas 27-16 in the second quarter.

The Mavericks never really righted the ship in the second half as the Jazz cut the lead to as few as three points in the third quarter. But the Mavericks’ talent advantage reigned supreme to keep the Jazz at bay. In the fourth quarter, Utah went on another run to cut it to five points for Dallas, but Kyrie Irving then checked into the game and went on a 5-0 run — a made three pointer and an assist in transition — for to give the Mavericks a double-digit lead, which they would hold for most of the game, winning by 12. Irving led the Mavericks and all scorers with 30 points.

Here’s what we noticed tonight.

The Mavericks looked like the old Mavericks for one night

Dallas hasn’t needed the three-point shot since it overtook its list of the last 24 points, and has now won games by controlling the paint and playing defense. Tonight though, the Mavericks of old returned as Dallas bombed away from three but didn’t do much of anything else all that well.

The Mavericks made 15 three pointers, with 39 of their 90 shot attempts being three pointers. Dallas made six more three-pointers than the Jazz, which 18-point advantage ended up being the biggest difference in what was a 12-point victory.

Quintin Grimes and Kyrie Irving combined for 11 of the 15 three-pointers and 24 of the 39 attempts. The hot shooting was fun to watch for a period, but after making nine three-pointers in the first quarter, Dallas made just six total for the rest of the game. That drought and the lack of a powerful approach to offense caught up with the Mavericks this period, but the Mavericks made just enough threes to cruise to the finish.

Dallas had no interest in rebounding

The Jazz matched the Mavericks in three-point attempts with 39 of their own, but they missed a staggering 30 of them and went 9-of-39 from three. That meant there were a ton of offensive rebound opportunities for the Jazz, and they gobbled up 19 offensive rebounds.

Utah started a big front line tonight with John Collins, Lauri Markkanen and Walker Kessler, and for one of the few times all season, the Mavericks didn’t find themselves the overwhelmingly bigger team. Even with Utah playing a big lineup, it was disheartening to see the Mavericks fail to box out or chase down all the long rebounds from the Jazz’s missed threes.

The Jazz had a staggering 30 second-chance points, the only reason this was even a game with Utah’s terrible shooting. If the Mavericks were more physical and pushed a little more, this could have been a great opportunity for a bigger blowout win to rest some key rotation players before a back-to-back in Portland tomorrow.

PJ Washington’s big 3rd quarter

This was a horrible process, a good scoring game for the Mavericks tonight. The first quarter was fool’s gold thanks to the Mavericks’ hot shooting, but from the opening tip, the game felt lopsided and weird from a Dallas perspective. The offense was flat and didn’t touch the paint, the defense didn’t make sharp rotations, and no one seemed interested in grabbing a rebound.

Even with Utah’s big lineup, it was starting to see the Mavericks barely crack double-digit points in the paint in the first half. Fortunately, Jason Kidd and the Mavericks coaching staff adjusted out of the locker room and finally got PJ Washington some favorable matchups in the post. While the Jazz started three big frontcourt players, their starting guards in Keyonte George and Collin Sexton are small — the Mavericks put Washington up on George several times in the third quarter, and Washington responded with an eight-point period, with all four of his baskets in the paint.

Washington kept his double-double streak alive with 16 points and 11 rebounds. Those eight points in the third quarter were crucial in making sure the Jazz never played with a lead in this game.