PHOENIX — On and on they went Sunday. Suns coach Monty Williams and point guard Chris Paul couldn’t seem to say enough complimentary things about the Mavericks.
Williams raved about complementary Mavericks such as Dorian Finney-Smith and Reggie Bullock, then turned the conversation to point guards Luka Doncic, Jalen Brunson and Spencer Dinwiddie.
“Those guys all fit together,” he said. “Brunson’s killing everybody right now. Those three guys on pick-and-roll pose a number of challenges.”
At no time Sunday did the Suns mention fourth quarters. Or clutch-time statistics. That’s probably because to Phoenix, especially since Paul joined the Suns before the 2020-21 season, playing well in clutch time has been virtually automatic.
Especially, it seems, against Dallas. No one is more painfully aware of that fact than the Mavericks, who enter Monday night’s Game 1 of this Western Conference semifinal having lost nine straight games to the Suns.
In each of the five most recent defeats, Dallas led entering the fourth quarter and allowed Paul and the Suns to take control by scoring at least 30 points in the final period.
“Hopefully,” Mavericks coach Jason Kidd said Sunday, “we can just keep the game close going into the fourth and find a way to win.”
Dallas probably should figure out a way to be better than just close entering the final quarter. Including playoffs, Phoenix is 50-0 this season when taking a lead into the fourth period.
The Mavericks likewise have been stellar frontrunners, not just this season under first-year coach Kidd, but also last season under Rick Carlisle.
Last season the Mavericks were 35-5 when leading after three quarters. This season they were 48-8 in those situations.
Problem is, last year’s Mavericks were 0-2 against the Suns in those situations; this season they are 0-3. In other words, of Dallas’ 83-13 record the past two seasons with a lead after three quarters, five of the defeats are to the Suns.
Why? The Mavericks to a man respond with two words: Chris Paul.
“You look at making plays in the fourth and Chris does it at a high level,” Kidd said. “And for us, that’s what we have to improve in this series, is being able to finish games.
“We believe that we’ve done better in the fourth quarter since the last time we played Phoenix, so if it comes down to the fourth we have to execute on both ends. Hopefully that ball bounces our way.”
Here’s what should give Mavericks fans some cause for optimism about upsetting the reigning Western Conference champion Suns. Dallas has in fact greatly improved its clutch-time play this season — that is, games in which the margin is five points or fewer during the final five minutes.
The Mavericks during the regular season were 22-16 in clutch games, 11th-best in the NBA. Phoenix was 33-9, the best in the league by a wide margin — with Toronto having the second-most clutch wins, 26, but also 19 clutch defeats.
Since Feb. 4, the Suns’ 13-6 clutch record (not including playoffs) was second-best in the league. Care to guess which team had the best clutch record to that period?
That would be Dallas, at 13-2. Most of those wins, not coincidentally, came after the Feb. 10 acquisition of Spencer Dinwiddie in the Kristaps Porzingis trade to Washington. In many of those cases, the Mavericks finished the game, or at least played much of the fourth quarter, with playmakers Doncic, Brunson and Dinwiddie on the court at the same time.
Moreover, all three of Dallas’ meetings against Phoenix occurred well before Dinwiddie’s arrival. The first two meetings, Nov. 17 and Nov. 19 in Phoenix, came without Doncic. The most recent meeting was Jan. 20 in Dallas.
“We’ve improved a lot,” Brunson said on Sunday. “We’ve gotten better every day. I think we’ve gotten better in fourth-quarter close-out situations and things like that, but yeah, we’ve definitely improved.”
While much has changed for the Mavericks since those meetings, the most important constant for Phoenix remains: Paul. It’s as if the Suns added the clutch gene the moment they acquired Paul.
For the Mavericks, facing Paul and the Suns has produced a maddening sense of déjà vu. When Phoenix won those Nov. 17 and 19 meetings in Phoenix, they marked the third and fourth straight times that Dallas led the Suns by exactly five points entering the fourth quarter and lost.
In the Jan. 20 game in American Airlines Center, the Mavericks figured out a way to not lead by exactly five points after three quarters. Instead they led 82-74 — for all the good it did them, as Phoenix outscored them 35-19 in the fourth quarter to win 109-101.
Winning the fourth quarters, especially in clutch time. If that formula for winning this series sounds rather uncomplicated, the Mavericks certainly understand that doing it against Phoenix is anything but.
