If the Jazz lose this first-round series to a Dallas club that’s playing without Luka Dončić—a loss that would likely bring about a significant shakeup in Utah—they’ll likely look back at Monday’s Game 2 defeat as the night that it all came apart.
Just in case starting point guard Mike Conley’s scoreless, 0-of-7 showing in 22 minutes wasn’t startling enough, the Jazz surrendered a 41-point, five-assist, zero-turnover showing to 6'1" Mavs guard Jalen Brunson in the 110–104 defeat, which evened the series at 1–1. No one—not Luka, not Dirk—in Mavs history had ever posted a 40-point, zero-turnover game in the playoffs before that. The man is going to make a lot of money this summer.
You might wonder how a player that small, however talented he might be, could generate that much offense against a team with perhaps the best rim protector in the game. But while Brunson shot over the top of the Stifle Tower a few times, he often pulled up before getting to him, attacking in that challenging in-between space of the floor after beating slow-footed Jazz perimeter defenders to the spot. Rudy Gobert, trying to play both his man (Dwight Powell or Maxi Kleber) and the ball, was generally only comfortable coming up so high, not wanting to surrender a lob or an open triple.
The latter concern was the one that jumped off the screen late with the Jazz defense, as it’s one we’ve seen before. Utah has been a sieve on the perimeter all year, but Monday was especially shameful, considering how big it would have been to take a 2–0 lead on a team that could get its perennial MVP candidate back in the lineup in the coming days.
More specifically, Brunson’s repeated drives to the basket forced help from Gobert, who was doing his best to not give up open looks at the rim. But in helping, he had to leave the right corner, where Kleber was open one play after the next. It looked exactly the same as last year’s Western Conference semifinal series against the Clippers, in which Los Angeles repeatedly goaded Gobert out of position to be able to make a quick pass to a wide-open shooter along the arc. (To be fair, we’ve also seen it toward the end of a few Utah collapses this season, when Gobert and the Jazz didn’t contest the perimeter after a switch. Take, for example, this comeback from Golden State in the second-to-last week of the season.)
Fixing that, along with finding better perimeter defenders, was really the one thing the Jazz needed to address this past offseason. (That effort, to acquire Rudy Gay and Eric Paschall and have them serve as small-ball centers, hasn’t worked.) But again, Utah appeared to fail the exam. “The telltale is that we can’t have Brunson have the night he had and also be able to kick the ball out for those looks,” Jazz coach Quin Snyder said.
Put another way: Utah didn’t take anything away, even on a night when Dončić was injured.
The Mavericks made seventeen uncontested triples on the night, the most of any club over the past 10 postseasons, according to ESPN’s Stats and Information Group. Of Kleber’s eight threes, seven of them came with no Jazz defender within proximity of him.
With the victory, the Mavs bought themselves some time to get Dončić back. But even if he doesn’t return, Dallas may have found Utah’s kryptonite, and that may be enough to make this a series with or without the superstar point guard.
