Dallas, April 19 (BUS): Galen Bronson scored 41 points in his career, Maxi Kleber scored 25 points with eight points out of 22 in the playoffs in Dallas, and the Mavericks, without star Luka Doncic, scored the first result. Round with a 110-104 win over the Utah Jazz in Game 2 Monday night.
The Mavericks, who risk falling behind in their first two games after the playoffs opener with a home field advantage for the first time since the NBA title 11 years ago, overcame a 10-point deficit after halftime, The Associated Press reported.
Kleber, who has made just 19% of his 3-point attempts since the All-Star break, was 8 of 11 from outside the arc when the Mavs needed them most. He put his index of 3 with 4:21 Dallas ahead to stay at 99-98, then added again on the next possession.
“I started this morning, I was talking to (Vinnie Smith) and I said, ‘Doe, I’m going to let the 10 3s fly tonight. And he said, “That’s my dog.” And that kind of set the tone for the day,” Kleber said. “The mentality is we know they are going to leave some players open to fire. We just have to let it fly.”
Game three takes place Thursday night in Utah, where Dallas has lost the last 11 games.
“We did what we had to do, which was won tonight. But we just focused on tonight,” Mavericks coach Jason Kidd said. It will be a hostile environment. They are playing very well at home.”
Bronson, the starting point guard with Doncic out, became the fifth Dallas player to score 40 points in a playoff game. Doncic was one of the previous four to do so.
Donovan Mitchell scored 34 points for Utah, while Bojan Bogdanovic scored 25 points and Jordan Clarkson scored 21 points. Rudi Gobert scored eight points and 17 rebounds.
Clarkson put the Jazz 3-pointers ahead 60-50 early in the third quarter, and the only time Dallas advanced in that quarter was when Clipper scored 3 minutes from the end to lead 74-73. But Bogdanovic scored 3 and then Jazz led 81-74 at the end of the third game after a basket from Mitchell.
Dallas didn’t advance again until 3rd by Dorian Finney-Smith with 6:12 left.
Doncic was still off the field due to a strain in his left calf that he suffered at the close of the regular season eight days ago. Coach Jason Kidd said before the game that the 23-year-old was making progress, “definitely going in the right direction” and doing more every day.
Bronson, who had 24 points when the Maves lost 99-93 in the first game, made his first five shots – by 3 seconds – in the first 6 minutes. He already had 13 points with Dallas leading 16-9, then missed a shot before scoring the next MAV basket by speeding it through the defense to stop the ball.
“He didn’t wait. He took up the space and was aggressive from the jump ball,” Kidd said. “We talked about that earlier. do not wait. Go where you are and do what you do best. I thought he ran the team very well.”
Hint
Jazz: Utah wiped out a five-point lead in the last minute of the first quarter to tie the game at 24 liters. The sequence began with Joubert’s throw. The 7-foot-1 centre, the NBA’s best defensive player in three of the previous four seasons and who finished third in this season’s award announced earlier on Monday, then blocked what looked like an easy run. Inside a Basket by Josh Green. Then came Clarkson’s triple pointer, who initially stumbled moving across the fairway. He got a pass, then got the ball back to hit from the left corner.
Mavericks: The Mavericks finished 21 of 41 in 3 seconds (51.2%) and shot 50% overall (36 of 72). .. Dallas led the NBA during the regular season with 17 wins after returning from a deficit of at least 10 points. …Dwight Powell was called up for a foul on Goubert, who was trying to convert Loeb’s pass into a basket in the middle of the third quarter. The Dallas crowd reacted loudly to the call, even louder when Joubert next missed two free throws.