Brunson explodes for 41, Mavs even series with Jazz
Luka who?
Jalen Brunson scored a career-high 41 points, Maxi Kleber had 25 — including eight of Dallas' playoff-record 22 made 3s — and the Mavericks, without superstar Luka Dončić, evened up their first-round series with a 110-104 win over the Utah Jazz in Game 2 on Monday night.
The Mavericks, in danger of dropping the first two games after opening the playoffs with home-court advantage for the first time since their NBA title 11 years ago, overcame a 10-point deficit after halftime.
Kleber, who had made only 19% of his 3-point attempts since the All-Star break, was 8-for-11 from beyond the arc when the Mavs needed them the most. His 3-pointer with 4:21 left put Dallas ahead to stay at 99-98, and he then added another on the next possession.
"I started this morning, I was talking to (Finney-Smith) and I told him, ‘Doe, I’m going to let 10 3s fly tonight.’ And he said, ‘That’s my dog.’ And that kind of set the tone for the day," Kleber said. "The mindset is we know they’re going to leave certain guys open to shoot. We’ve just got to let it fly."
Game 3 is Thursday night in Utah, where Dallas has lost its last 11 games.
"We did what we had to do, which was won tonight. But we were only focused on tonight," Mavericks coach Jason Kidd said. "We understand what’s in front of us, what’s coming. It’s going to be a hostile environment. They play extremely well at home."
Brunson, the starting point guard with Dončić out, became the fifth Dallas player to score 40 points in a playoff game. Dončić was one of the previous four to do so.
Donovan Mitchell had 34 points for Utah, while Bojan Bogdanovic had 25 and Jordan Clarkson 21. Rudy Gobert had eight points and 17 rebounds.
A 3-pointer by Clarkson put the Jazz up 60-50 early in the third quarter, and the only time Dallas led in that quarter was when Kleber hit a 3 with two minutes left for a 74-73 lead. But Bogdanovic then hit a 3, and the Jazz led 81-74 at the end of the third after a basket by Mitchell.
Dallas didn’t lead again until a 3 by Dorian Finney-Smith with 6:12 left.
Dončić was still out because of a strained left calf he suffered in the regular season finale eight days earlier. Coach Jason Kidd said before the game that the 23-year-old All-Star was making progress, "definitely going in the right direction" and doing more each day.
Brunson, who had 24 points when the Mavs lost 99-93 in Game 1, made his first five shots — with three 3s — in the first 6 minutes. He already had 13 points with Dallas up 16-9, then missed a shot before scoring the next Mavs basket by accelerating through the defense for a layup.
"He didn’t wait. He took up the space and was aggressive from the jump ball," Kidd said. "We talked about it earlier. Don’t wait. Get to your spot and do what you do best. I thought he ran the team extremely well."
Reporting by the Associated Press.
