Mavs Defeat Top-Seeded Jazz 111-103 Behind Surprise Finney-Smith Performance
The Dallas Mavericks have been one of the hottest teams in the NBA as of late, winning four straight games coming into their Monday night matchup against the Utah Jazz at the American Airlines Center.
Those winning ways continued here, with Dallas taking care of the top-seeded Utah Jazz 111-103 for their fifth-straight win, in what was arguably their most impressive performance of the entire season to date.
As a team, Dallas not only shot 45.1-percent from the field and 46.9-percent from three, but put forth one of their best defensive efforts of the year, holding Utah to a season-low 69 points through three quarters, and 14 points below their season average of 117.2 points per game.
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Luka Doncic of course led the way for the Mavericks once again, scoring 31 points to go along with nine rebounds and eight assists while hitting 11-of-26 from the floor and 6-of-11 from three in 36 minutes... a good deal of which came in a 16-point third-quarter outburst.
Josh Richardson also came alive for Dallas, pouring in 17 points and hitting a staggering 5-of-5 from beyond the arc, while Jalen Brunson and Tim Hardaway Jr. contributed 20 and 16 points respectively off of the bench with the second unit.
Dorian Finney-Smith, however, was the surprise contributor offensively for Dallas on Monday, scoring 23 points on 8-of-17 shooting and 5-of-12 from three, in what was arguably one of the best offensive showings of his career.
For context, coming into the Monday matchup, Finney-Smith was averaging just 8.5 points and 5.3 rebounds per game on 43.8-percent shooting and 36.3-percent from beyond the arc.
Here, Finney-Smith not only exceeded those averages but played a key role in the Mavs fending off a fourth-quarter Jazz run to seal the game away and send the Mavs to their fifth consecutive win.
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The Mavs will be back in action on Wednesday night when they travel south on I-45 to take on their division rivals, the Houston Rockets.
Dallas is 1-1 against the Rockets so far this season, with their lone blemish coming on January 23 in a 133-108 blowout loss at the American Airlines Center following the James Harden Trade.
However, since that win, the Rockets are just 6-27 and have lost 24 of their last 26 games, including a 20-game losing streak from February 6 - March 21.
CONTINUE READING: Mavs Talk: ‘Let's Keep This Rolling!’ - Luka Doncic
