Dallas, April 26 (BUS): Luka Doncic delighted the fans in his first home playoff after injuring his calf.
Also thwarted the Utah Jazz.
The young Dallas star scored 33 points and grabbed 13 rebounds while also being dumped onto the field after a blunder that sent off Hassan Whiteside as the Mavericks beat the Jazz 102-77 on Monday night to advance 3-2 in the first round. Series, Associated Press reports.
Doncic made his series debut in Game 4 in Utah, when Jazz scored the last five in the last 31 seconds of his one-point win that capped the same series. He never let a 5 game come close.
“In his second game, it looks like he’s been playing this whole series,” coach Jason Kidd said. “His conditioning, his effort on the defensive end. While we talk about rebounding, he is one of the best for us and he did that tonight.”
Finishing the first four games with eight points or less, Utah never had a chance after nearly six minutes of a negative second-quarter drought that led to a 22-4 run for Dallas en route to a 52-36 lead at halftime.
Game Six takes place Thursday night in Salt Lake City, where the Jazz have regained their massive home edge, but face long odds of only 18% of teams winning in a single series after losing Game Five when the top four teams split.
The Mavericks haven’t advanced in the postseason since winning the 2011 Utah playoffs for the sixth consecutive year, but haven’t yet made it past the second round in that stretch.
Jordan Clarkson scored 20 points and Rudy Gobert added 17 points and 11 rebounds in the Jazz’s lowest-scoring game since they lost by 50 points in Dallas (118-68) on November 14, 2018. They were 3 of 30 from 3-point range (10%) He called it 38% overall.
Donovan Mitchell, who averaged 30 points in the first four games, scored just nine goals and missed all seven of his throws before leaving with a left hamstring injury in the fourth quarter. He’ll have an MRI on Tuesday.
“They fought very hard,” Mitchell said, firing off 20% from a 3-point range after topping 40% in the past two years. “Teams constantly running off the line is a lot, and they did a good job at that. They made us uncomfortable.”
Doncic had fully equaled Utah’s production in the third quarter with 19 points when he came back midway through the fourth inning. Whiteside stabbed to try to drown him and Doncic was sent to court after they tangled.
Two technical fouls were assessed on Whiteside after Dorian pushed Finney Smith and tackled Reggie Bullock as coaches frantically tried to keep the players separate. Finney-Smith and Bullock also got technical, and Bullock was sent off because it was his second in the match.
“It was nothing,” Doncic said. “It’s playoffs, man. There will always be interest, but it was nothing. I tried to dunk it in. It wasn’t successful. These things happen in playoffs.”
Jalen Bronson, who bore most of Dallas’s offensive burden when Doncic missed, scored 24 points. Vinnie Smith added 13, and Dwight Powell grabbed the crowd early with all his eight points in a 4-of-4 shooting in the first.
Doncic, his left leg draped in a black mantle under white pants, kept the boisterous crowd rolling with numerous elegant moves and high-bent treble heads.
The first highlight came late in the first half when Doncic drove all the way to the edge with Jaubert’s guard, stopping and falsifying the 7-foot-1 center several times before turning his back to the basket and spinning a reverse shot from the glass. While Joubert fiddled.
The exclamation point came in the third quarter, when Doncic shot 3 seconds in a row to lead 74-46, and slammed in front of the crowd to his left after I entered the second. The 23-year-old Ahasas hit another hat-trick for a 79-46 lead right after Clarkson’s shot from deep was blocked.
DEJA VU AGAIN
It’s the second year in a row that the Mavericks have led 3-2 in the first round. They were unable to finish the Los Angeles Clippers at home in Game 6 last season, and lost the series in Game 7 in Los Angeles.
“I don’t remember that,” Vinnie Smith said before smiling. “I don’t even remember last year. Nah, but we put ourselves in a great place. We just have to deal with our business in Utah.”
Hints
The Jazz: After dominating the boards for the first two games, Utah slowly gave up their advantage as the series progressed. The Mavs 49-40 outnumbered them. … Bojan Bogdanovic, who scored 26 and 25 points in his first two games in Dallas, was 0 of 9 from the field and scored only two goals.
Mavericks: The 77 points were the first Dallas allowed this season. …G Frank Ntilikina was first available in the series after he had an illness other than COVID-19. not played.