As he sat down for his postgame interview, Luka Dončić glanced at the stat sheet and had one thing to say.
“Forty-two.”
That could only be in reference to one thing: Utah’s free-throw total.
This was not an indictment on the officiating. The Mavericks had to commit a lot of fouls just to keep Rudy Gobert from turning this game into his own personal dunk contest.
The Jazz center, who had shot just 15 free throws in the first three games of the first-round playoff series, was getting the ball at point-blank range time and time again.
The result is he wore a path in the hardwood going to the line 18 times on Saturday afternoon in the Jazz’s 100-99 victory in Game 4 that knotted the best-of-seven series at two wins apiece.
The Jazz shot 42 free throws, or 19 more than the Mavericks and even though Gobert was only 9-of-18, his parade to the stripe was a big momentum swinger for the Jazz in a game they desperately needed.
“We got to be physical without fouling,” said Jalen Brunson, who despite his 6-1 stature is one of the Mavericks’ most physical players. “Obviously, some of those of those fouls down low we had to wrap him up so he couldn’t get easy ones.
“But when we do take those fouls, we have to be conscious of the other fouls we’ve been committing. We just got to be solid. At the same time, he played well today. Got to give him credit. But we just can’t do that. We can’t foul as much as we did.”
The Mavericks’ did what they wanted to do in Utah – gave themselves a chance to win. Twice. They got it done in Game 3 and came up shy in Game 4 when Donovan Mitchell lobbed a pass to Gobert and he rammed it home with 11 seconds to play. When they double-teamed Dončić on the Mavericks’ last gasp, he made a good pass to Spencer Dinwiddie, but unlike other times this season, Dinwiddie’s 3-pointer clanged off the rim and the series was tied.
“It’s tough to win a game with (the opponent taking) 42 free throws,” Dončić said. “So we got to stop fouling. That’s the first thing. We got to stop fouling. That’s what we got to learn from it.”
Easier said than done, however.
Gobert barged back into the series after averaging only 9.3 points in the first three games of the series. He finished with 17 points and 15 rebounds, not far off his regular-season averages.
And he had 10 of Utah’s 13 offensive rebounds that led to a whopping 22-12 edge in second-chance points.
“Look at the offensive rebounds,” coach Jason Kidd said. “And then he had 18 free throws. We have to stop fouling. They shot 42 free throws at home. That’s way too many and they got up to 35 threes. Those are two areas we got to be better at for Game 5.”
Though the Mavericks weren’t afraid to put Gobert on the line, where he was a 69 percent shooter this season, it wasn’t exactly a throwback to Hack-a-Shaq strategies, where teams have purposely sent notoriously bad free throw shooters to the line on purpose.
But putting Gobert on the line 18 times actually wasn’t a terrible idea, given that he missed half of his tries.
That said, the Mavericks know that giving Utah 42 chances at free-throw points is a bad idea, even if their percentage is underwhelming.
And they have to hope it didn’t jump-start Gobert back into this series.
Blow to the head: Gobert inadvertently had a blow to the head of Dončić in the second half.
The play was reviewed but was not deemed to be a hostile act, which would have turned it into a flagrant foul.
Luka said: “I talked to a couple guys (officials) about the NBA rules. When they call this, something to the face I think should be a technical foul. If I’m not wrong, I think that’s by the rules. So I don’t know. They reviewed it, so I guess this was not. But I don’t know.”
Said Kidd: “They went and looked at it. That’s the league’s decision. That’s up to them to figure out if it’s an elbow or not. And they decided it’s not.”
Tough challenge for Utah: Jazz coach Quin Snyder was asked before the game about the challenge of dealing with Maxi Kleber lobbing in a slew of 3-pointers, but also not allowing the Mavericks a free-pass to the rim when they penetrate.
It’s a complicated thing to deal with.
How complicated?
Snyder talked for 3 minutes, 30 seconds answering the question. And he hit on some critical points.
“They are spacing Rudy (Gobert) in the strong corner so that he can’t help defensively,” Snyder said. “That can be difficult, particularly when he (Kleber) is shooting the ball without hesitation. And he’s making them. I bring it out more to give him credit for what he’s doing in a playoff situation where his shooting is impacting the game.”
It wasn’t quite the impact in Game 4 because Kleber fouled out after only 18 minutes. His foul troubles were a big reason the Maverick couldn’t use their smaller lineups.
“We didn’t go small today,” Kidd said. “We have to do a better job of rebounding the ball. And when Maxi was in foul trouble, we don’t have that many bigs as it is. He’s in foul trouble, we had to play DP a little more. But again, we just have to do a better job of keeping those guys (off the boards).”
Asked if the small lineup is still an option, he said: “That’s always on the table for us, going small. We just didn’t get a chance to get to it this afternoon.”
Briefly: The Jazz rely heavily on Jordan Clarkson, a perennial sixth-man candidate who had been solid in the first three games, averaging 15 points. But he broke loose for 25 on Saturday, hitting nine of 16 shots, including 3-of-5 from 3-point range. Clarkson was the key reason that the Jazz’s bench outscored the Mavericks’ reserves 34-13 . . . The Mavericks actually had a good rebounding game, losing the glass by only 46-43. But it was the offensive rebounding for the Jazz that cost the Mavericks . . . The Mavericks will get a recovery day on Sunday leading up to Game 5 on Monday night at American Airlines Center.
Twitter: @ESefko
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