DALLAS — Twenty four hours before the Dallas Mavericks started Game 2, the secondary ticket market screamed, "No chance."
The price of tickets for the Mavs' Game 2 against the Utah Jazz in their first-round NBA playoff series dropped by half with the news that All-Star Luka Doncic was likely out again.
Fans will spend premium money to watch Luka and the Mavs in the playoffs.
Fans won't spend that stupid money a Luka-less Mavs in the playoffs.
Those who splurged got the deal they sought, but didn't expect.
With Luka out for the second consecutive game nursing that strained calf, the Dallas Mavericks look like 15th-seed St. Joseph's in the NBA playoffs.
With less than nothing inside, Mavs guard Jalen Brunson made like Luka and the Mavs elected to shoot 3s and hope they dropped.
Brunson scored a career-high 41 points, and the Mavs defeated the Utah Jazz 110-104 in Game 2 of their NBA first-round playoff series on Monday night at the American Airlines Center.
The series is tied at 1.
The series is tied at 1 because the Mavs made 22-of-47 of their 3-point attempts, which is the reason they came back from a double-digit second-half deficit to win.
This was the first time the Mavs won a home playoff game since Game 4 of their first round series against Houston in 2015.
Forward Maxi Kleber scored 25 points on 8-of-11 3-point shooting, including two in the fourth quarter that made the American Airlines Center quake.
This is a hard formula to repeat multiple times in a series for three more wins against Utah, but it bought the Mavs time.
Doncic is doing a little bit more, but his status for Game 3 on Thursday in Utah remains doubtful until notified otherwise.
"We know we buy time for Luka coming back. It's not rocket science," Mavs guard Spencer Dinwiddie said. "Like I said after Game 1, there's a reason for optimism. There's reason for optimism now."
The Mavs had quality open looks against Utah in Game 1, but made only 9-of-32 of their 3-point attempts in a six-point loss.
In Game 2, they made 47% of their 3-point shots in a six-point win.
"It's the way Utah plays us, and not having Luka," Dinwiddie said. "Our emphasis is to crack the paint, and start the blender. You're looking for a quality shot, not live and die by the three. We're not Golden State."
In Games 1 and 2, the Mavs had quality 3-point shots. They just made them in Game 2.
Their 3-pointers offset the ugly reality that they were outrebounded 50-31 in Game 2. The Jazz are outrebounding the Mavs in this series, 103-65.
"You can't win every stat. You can't. We didn't turn the ball over," Mavs coach Jason Kidd said after the game.
He's not far off. The Mavs turned the ball over three times, a club record.
"One of the biggest stats was we won the game," Kidd said. "They can win the rebounding war, but it's about winning the game, and that's what we did."
The other big "stat" was Brunson, who abused whatever Jazz defender tried to stay in front of him. It didn't matter who the Jazz ran at Brunson, he dribbled around him.
He scored 41 points on 15-of-25 shooting with eight rebounds and five assists.
"He's going to make a lot of money," Kidd said of Brunson, who can be a free agent after the season.
True.
"In high school I had 56 points in a semifinal," Brunson said. "Felt similar."
This one might have been a little bit bigger.
Along with a load of 3-pointers, Brunson is the reason why the Mavs beat the Jazz, and bought time for Luka to return.
