GAME 2: Utah Jazz (1-0) at DALLAS MAVERICKS (0-1)
Time: 7:30 p.m., Monday.
Place: American Airlines Center, Dallas.
TV: Bally Sports Southwest, NBA TV.
Radio: The Eagle 97.1 FM; Univision Zona MX 99.1 FM (Spanish)
Format: Best-of-Seven.
About the Jazz: They flipped the home-court advantage with their 99-93 win in Game 1 on Saturday afternoon. Bojan Bogdanovic got the Jazz off to a great start with 20 of his 26 points in the first half and then Donovan Mitchell took over with 19 of his 32 points in the third quarter . . . The Jazz know they have a size advantage and they are not afraid to use it. They hammered the Mavericks on the glass in Game 1, 53-34, and had 20 second-chance points to just seven for the Mavericks. If that becomes a trend, then the Jazz will be clearly in the driver’s seat . . . Rudy Gobert had a major impact on Game 1 and he only took one shot from the field. He missed it, but he had 17 rebounds to fuel the Jazz’s second-chance onslaught. He also had three blocked shots. Combined with his backup, Hassan Whiteside, the Jazz had 25 rebounds out of the center position. The Mavericks must figure out a way to compete on the boards despite the size advantage Utah owns . . . If Utah wins Game 2, they will have an overwhelming edge. When the road team wins the first two games in a best-of-seven series, they advance to the next round a whopping 84.4 percent of the time (27-5) . . . The Los Angeles Clippers were one of the five teams to pull off that feat last year against the Mavericks . . . Sixth man of the year candidate Jordan Clarkson had a fairly quiet first game with just 10 points off the bench in 20 minutes . . . Utah has one of the best home-court advantages in the NBA, particularly in the playoffs. They have
About the Mavericks: The smart money is on Luka Dončić remaining sidelined for Game 2. He did some light shooting on Sunday, but did not appear to be moving in any way that would test his strained left calf muscle. He’s officially listed as doubtful for Monday, the same designation he had before Game 1 . . . In his absence, Spencer Dinwiddie and Jalen Brunson combined for 46 points, but needed 41 shots to get there. Overall, the Mavericks shot just 38.2 percent in Game 1and just 28.1 percent from 3-point range . . . They actually did a solid job against high-scoring Jazz guard Donovan Mitchell, who had 32 points but needed 29 shots to get them. He also had a banked-in 3-pointer during a 19-point third quarter. The Mavericks did a terrific job of limiting the Jazz’s 3-pointers. They came in having shot the second-most 3-pointers in the league in the regular season, but were just 7-of-22 in Game 1 . . . Getting some more offense out of the bench would be advisable. They got just 14 bench points in Game 1, 10 of them from Maxi Kleber, who had not played in the final four games of the regular season with an ankle issue . . . Jason Kidd shortened the rotation to eight players in Game 1 and it appears unlikely that will grow much until Luka’s return . . . Dwight Powell had averaged 13.6 points and 6.7 rebounds in the last 11 games of the season as the pick-and-roll with Luka worked wonders. In Game 1, he had just four points and five rebounds in 22 minutes . . . The disturbing part of the Game 1 loss was that the Mavericks had only seven turnovers, which turned into 10 Utah points. They forced 15 turnovers, but could only convert those into 14 points.
Twitter: @ESefko
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