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DALLAS — It was a bit of gamesmanship.
After Utah dominated the boards in Game 1, coach Quin Snyder politely suggested that if the Jazz were going to have a 20-rebound advantage, teams would have to think twice about going small against them.
Hey, you can't fault him for trying, but Dallas coach Jason Kidd didn't heed Snyder's suggestion. The result? A tied series.
The Mavericks did what just about every other team has when facing the Jazz in the playoffs: They went small and shot their way to a 110-104 win over the Jazz in Game 2 of the best-of-seven series.
Jalen Brunson scored a career-high 41 points and was serenaded to an "MVP" chant by the 20,000 Dallas faithful as he stepped to the free-throw line in the final minutes. Maxi Kleber's eight 3-pointers — seven being uncontested — shot the Mavericks back into the series.
The Mavericks shot 22 of 47 from deep.
But before it's believed a hot shooting night doomed the Jazz, consider that 17 of the 22 made 3-pointers were uncontested. That's how Kleber, who had shot 18% from deep since the All-Star break, goes 8 of 11.
"We just gave up a lot 3s," said Donovan Mitchell, who had 34 points on 30 shots.
He then stopped and looked down at the box sheet laying in front of him: "47 threes?" he said with surprise. "Damn, I didn't know that."
When NBA players get continuous open looks, they tend to knock them down. It was nearly the exact same scenario that sank the Jazz last season against the Los Angeles Clippers. Last playoffs, it was Terrence Mann drilling shot after shot; on Monday, it was Kleber.
A year later, the Jazz still haven't adjusted.
"The challenge for us is to do a better job containing the ball," Snyder said. "And then if we aren't able to do that, to come and be able to protect the rim, and then when the balls kicked out, to get that to those shooters, particularly to the first shooter."
With that, Snyder more or less laid down just how to beat the Jazz — and it was far from a secret. The Jazz have dealt with teams going small and attacking their poor perimeter defense all season.
"We've got to guard the ball," Mitchell said. "We've got to do a better job of that and then limit the wide-open 3s. We just need to rotate, do something."
The discouraging thing is the Jazz appeared to find an answer in Game 1. In the series opener, when Gobert was forced from the corner to the rim, a Utah guard quickly rotated to the corner while Gobert ran back to the wing; it worked. On Monday, the Jazz were back to their old habit of daring supposedly poor 3-point shooters to make a shot. Kleber became the latest player to take advantage.
So why was it different?
"I can't really answer that without giving you the game plan," Mitchell said. "Kleber shot 8 of 11 from 3s. It was more a stunt than a rotate to him — it looks a lot different when he starts making."
It looked like a loss.
And so the Jazz return to Salt Lake City after splitting the first two games in Dallas against the Luka Doncic-less Mavericks; and they may have missed an opportunity to end the series before the superstar could make it back.
Brunson did his best impersonation anyway.
The Dallas guard was 15 of 25 from the field and 6 of 10 from deep. He scored 15 points in the first quarter to set the stage for what would be a Dallas playoff masterpiece. He's the fifth Mavericks player to score 40 or more points in a playoff game, joining a list headlined by Dirk Nowitizki and Doncic.
"We can't have Brunson have a night like he had and then also have them able to kick the ball out for those looks," Snyder said.
Those two sins make all the other things moot pretty quickly. Mitchell's 34-point night? Irrelevant, especially since he was 3 of 11 in the fourth quarter as the Jazz tried to hold on. Utah shooting 38% from 3-point range? Not nearly good enough when the team loses the 3-point battle by 33 points. The Jazz's 50-31 rebound advantage? Hardly pertinent when the team ended up behind on the scoreboard.
The gamesmanship didn't work. The Mavs still went small, and the Jazz are now in a series.
