Jazz Roll Past Luka Doncic, Mavericks 120-101 to Capture 11th Straight Win
The Utah Jazz won their 11th straight game to move to an NBA-best 15-4 after defeating the Dallas Mavericks 120-101 on Friday at Vivint Arena in Salt Lake City.
Utah jumped out to a 37-12 lead after the first quarter and never looked back. Dallas did cut Utah's edge to 13 points in the second but was unable to get any closer.
Jazz wing Bojan Bogdanovic led all scorers with 32 points. He hit 7-of-11 three-pointers. Six Jazz players scored in double figures. For Dallas, Luka Doncic led the way with 25 points.
Utah also out-rebounded Dallas 56-40, with Jazz center Rudy Gobert snagging a game-high 12.
The Jazz were without All-Star and leading scorer Donovan Mitchell, who missed his second straight game with a concussion.
The 8-11 Mavericks dropped their fourth straight contest.
Notable Performances
Mavericks PG Luka Doncic: 25 points, 7 assists, 6 rebounds
Mavericks PF/C Kristaps Porzingis: 11 points, 9 rebounds
Mavericks F Dorian Finney-Smith: 11 points
Jazz SG Bojan Bogdanovic: 32 points
Jazz C Rudy Gobert: 17 points, 12 rebounds, 2 blocks
Jazz PG Mike Conley: 22 points, 9 assists, 3 steals
Utah Continues Crushing the Association
The Utah Jazz are stone-cold killers right now, winning 10 of their last 11 games by double digits.
Their lone win under 10 points during that span was a 109-105 victory over the Denver Nuggets, last year's Western Conference finalists. They can be forgiven for not hitting the 10-point barrier on the road against an NBA MVP candidate in Nikola Jokic and the sharpshooter Jamal Murray.
Utah has simply dominated teams, perhaps never more so than in the second half of its game against the plucky New York Knicks.
New York looked like it would break the Jazz, who went ice cold in the first half and found themselves down 59-46 at halftime.
That apparently didn't matter to Utah, which proceeded to take the lead early in the fourth quarter before rolling to a 14-point win on a night in which Mitchell scored nine points on 3-of-15 shooting. Utah outscored New York 62-35 after halftime.
Since Mitchell, who's averaging 23.4 points per game, is out with a concussion, one could assume that Utah's offense would suffer without its top playmaker, but somehow, that hasn't happened.
The Jazz proceeded to crush Dallas in a two-game series by a combined 31 points after taking down the Mavericks 116-104 on Wednesday. Granted, the Mavs are struggling, but Utah led by double digits for the entire second, third and fourth quarters of each game.
What's going right? This team gets scorching hot from three. It entered Friday's game making 39.7 percent of its shots from downtown. Utah has the best sixth man in the league in Jordan Clarkson and a trio of starters (Bogdanovic, Gobert and Conley) unequivocally playing the best (or close to it) ball of their careers.
Royce O'Neale and Joe Ingles may not light up the scoreboard, but they rebound, play tough defense and fit well into an offense that ranked fifth in offensive rating going into Friday, per Basketball Reference.
The team is a well-oiled machine that has no glaring weakness, and head coach Quin Snyder is the early top candidate for Coach of the Year.
Championships, of course, aren't won 19 games into a season. And the Jazz will have a tough postseason lying ahead, with games against LeBron James and the defending champion Los Angeles Lakers potentially looming.
But this team is for real. Whether it is good enough to make the NBA Finals remains to be seen, but it isn't about to wilt down the stretch or stumble early in the playoffs. In other words, expect at least one epic battle against a team from L.A. (the Lakers or Clippers) in the spring.
Dallas Loses Seventh Game Out of Nine, But Sky Isn't Falling (Yet)
Not much has gone right for the Mavericks this year.
Granted, it's been a strange season because of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has caused an adjusted schedule, protocol changes and players routinely needing to sit out for either positive tests or contact tracing.
Numerous rotation players have missed significant time to injuries on top of that, with Kristaps Porzingis, Josh Richardson, Dorian Finney-Smith, Dwight Powell and Maxi Kleber all missing at least eight of the Mavs' 19 games thus far. Dallas hasn't been able to get into any sort of rhythm or consistent flow.
Ultimately, the sky isn't falling, especially with the season still featuring 53 more regular-season games. The Mavs have time to get healthy and recapture the success that made them a playoff team last year.
There is one issue, however, they need to address.
The defense has been porous at times, entering Friday ranked 20th in defensive rating, per Basketball Reference. That number won't be getting any better after the Jazz dropped 120 points, 37 of which came in the first quarter.
Dallas has allowed at least 112 in each of its last nine games. It did that just three times (in regulation) during its first 10 contests. Of course, the injuries haven't helped, but Dallas' offense simply hasn't been good enough (15th in offensive rating entering Friday) to make up for the defensive deficiencies.
Unfortunately, the Mavericks' schedule isn't going to let up, with their next five games against teams with winning records (albeit barely in the 9-8 Phoenix Suns, 10-9 Atlanta Hawks and 10-9 Golden State Warriors).
Dallas has only played six home games versus 13 on the road. The Mavs are just 2-4 at home, but maybe returning to Texas can help turn the season around. They'll have to clamp down on defense to do so, but the daily triple-double threat in Doncic gives them hope.
What's Next?
The Jazz will visit the Nuggets on Sunday at 3:30 p.m. ET at Ball Arena. The Mavs will return home to host the Suns on Saturday at 9 p.m. ET in American Airlines Center.
