Mavs 4th Quarter Success vs. Suns in Game 1: Fluke or Blueprint?
The Dallas Mavericks got off to a shaky start in their second-round series opener against the Phoenix Suns on Monday night. Whether it was nerves, strategy or a little bit of both, the Mavs started Game 1 by going down by nine points in the first two minutes of action, and they were never able to fully recover from that.
Trailing by as many as 21 points in the fourth quarter, Dallas made a late rally behind Luka Doncic’s 45-point performance to cut the deficit to single digits with 1:19 remaining, but the Mavs still ultimately lost the game, 121-114.
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Heading into Game 2 on Wednesday night in Phoenix, the Mavs don’t think what transpired in that Game 1 fourth quarter was a fluke. Instead, they believe it was a blueprint for success going forward in the series, and they just might right.
The Mavs were down 102-83 with a little over 10 minutes remaining in the fourth quarter of Game 1 when coach Jason Kidd decided to roll with his small-ball lineup of Doncic, Jalen Brunson, Spencer Dinwiddie, Reggie Bullock and Dorian Finney-Smith. When Bullock fouled out with 2:40 remaining, Josh Green took his place in that smaller lineup, and all together, Dallas out-scored Phoenix 31-19 in that final frame after making that adjustment.
“I'm probably going to play a lot more five (in Game 2),” said Finney-Smith. We've just got to rebound, play big. … We've been here before. Don't overreact. We've just got to go back to the drawing board. We know how they're playing. We've got to make our adjustments."
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The biggest adjustment for Dallas could have already been made based on what we saw in Game 1. If the Mavs can sustain their small-ball success and find a way to get off to a better start in Game 2, we could see a 1-1 tied series heading back to Dallas for Games 3 and 4 over the weekend.
"We just didn't get off to a good start, but we didn't give in. We kept playing,” said Kidd. “I thought the tempo was great for us. We got a lot of good looks at three that we just didn't make."
