Doncic Leads Mavs to Game 6 Win Over Jazz, 1st Playoff Series Victory Since 2011
"We've got to continue to get better," said Jalen Brunson after the Dallas Mavericks dismantled the Utah Jazz in Game 5 to take a 3-2 series lead. "Going into Utah is going to be tough, but I think we're up for it."
Tough it was, but the Mavs were still able to gut out a 98-96 win to advance to the second round of the playoffs for the first time since the 2011 NBA Finals.
Alex Goodlett/Getty Images
Alex Goodlett/Getty Images
Alex Goodlett/Getty Images
After trailing by 12 points at halftime, Dallas rallied in the second half and led by as many as eight points in the fourth quarter. The Jazz fought back in the final minutes, taking advantage of their late trips to the free-throw line. On the final play of the game, Bojan Bogdanovic missed a wide open 3-pointer at the buzzer as time expired on Utah's season.
The Mavs were led by their three-guard trio of Luka Doncic, Spencer Dinwiddie and Jalen Brunson in Game 6. Doncic finished with 24 points, nine rebounds and eight assists on 8-of-21 shooting from the field and 4-of-10 from deep. Brunson and Dinwiddie pitched in with 24 and 19 points, respectively.
"I'm just really happy to go past the first round," said a relieved Doncic. "Everybody played their ass off. ... I think we're going to play our best basketball to beat (Phoenix). ... We've got to translate our defense from the first round to the second round."
Doncic reached 500 career playoff points on Thursday night through 16 postseason games. That's the quickest any player in NBA history has reached that number since Michael Jordan did it in 14 games.
Alex Goodlett/Getty Images
Alex Goodlett/Getty Images
Melissa Majchrzak/NBAE via Getty Images
After shooting just 32 percent from the field and 22 percent from deep in Games 1-through-5, Dinwiddie finally posted a decent shooting performance in Game 6 when Dallas needed it most. He shot 7-of-12 from the field, 4-of-7 from deep, and was a +12 in 32 minutes off the bench.
As a cherry on top of Dinwiddie's night, due to a bonus clause in his contract, he earned an extra $100K since the Mavs advanced to the second round.
Dorian Finney-Smith was also huge for Dallas, especially in the fourth quarter, as he finished with 18 points, 10 rebounds and five assists in 46 minutes of action. When the Mavs couldn't get anything to go down midway through the final frame, Finney-Smith came up with some big 3-point shots. He finished shooting 4-of-9 from deep.
"It feels good man," said Finney-Smith. "It feels real good, especially when you're playing that group of guys. They just care about winning. ... We all expected to get this win. We're ready to play Phoenix."
After closing out their series in Utah, the Mavs will now re-pack their bags for Phoenix, as they take on the Suns in Game 1 of their second-round series on Monday night. The Suns finished off their first-round series against the Pelicans on the road as well on Thursday night.
