Final: Jazz 103, Mavs 100
Box Score | Highlights
Behind the Box Score
The first half was a pretty dazzling display of shot-making, with Utah scoring 1.49 points per possession to the Mavs’ 1.32. The score at the break was 64-58, which is incredibly high given the low number of possessions the teams played in the first half (only 43). The offenses were the aggressors in the early going, to be sure.
Notebook
The Mavs fought, scratched, and clawed their way back into this thing, tying the game with under a minute left after trailing by as many as 15 points. But after Deron Williams missed a go-ahead 3-pointer, Utah grabbed the board and sped the other way, and Rodney Hood drained a trey of his own with 0.8 seconds left. Tough result for the Mavs, but they did everything they could to get back into it.
Deron Williams has been critical of his own shooting lately, but tonight he shot the ball very well, finishing with 18 points on 6-of-10 shooting. He also added seven assists. The Utah boo-birds still occasionally let him hear it, but that didn’t seem to bother him tonight. Harrison Barnes and Wesley Matthews have been putting up pretty big scoring numbers in recent weeks, so if Williams can consistently join them in that regard, that will give the Mavs’ offense a big boost. Unfortunately, however, he came up limping after drawing a foul in the fourth quarter, appearing to favor his right leg.
For the second straight game, the Mavericks finished the first half with fewer than 10 rebounds. Dallas pulled down just nine in the opening act against Detroit on Wednesday, while tonight the club managed eight, with only five of them coming on the defensive end. To be fair, the Jazz missed just 13 shots overall in the first half as they shot a whopping 64.9 percent from the field, but those problems are directly related. Utah scored 34 points in the paint in the first half alone on 17-of-22 shooting, meaning the playmakers were able to break down the Mavs’ perimeter defense and get into the teeth of the unit, which can really compromise a team’s defensive rebounding. This goes double right now for Dallas, currently without one of the league’s best defensive rebounders in Andrew Bogut. This is also two games in a row when the opponent has had a monstrous offensive rebounder (Andre Drummond and Rudy Gobert, respectively). Harrison Barnes has said the Mavs need to make a team-wide commitment to rebounding as a five-man unit rather than relying too much on the centers. Dallas will need to make the proper adjustments in time for Sunday’s battle with the DeMarcus Cousins-led Kings.
When injuries hit, everyone on the depth chart moves up a spot. And when the remaining players get in foul trouble, everyone moves up one more spot. A.J. Hammons got in the game with 10 minutes left in the third quarter tonight as Salah Mejri battled foul trouble. The rookie has played sparingly in his first season in Dallas, but he made an impact in his limited minutes tonight, hitting a pick-and-pop 3-pointer from the top of the arc and pulling down a rebound against Gobert in three minutes. He also picked up three fouls in that time, which is obviously something the coaching staff doesn’t want to see, but that’s to be expected from a rookie big man. The more Hammons plays, the easier it should become to avoid those mistakes. And if he can keep hitting shots, he might just get more minutes soon.
What’s Next
The Mavs (6-20) play the Sacramento Kings (9-16) on Sunday at American Airlines Center at 3 p.m. Central.
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