Jalen Brunson giving Jazz fans another star from Dallas to worry about


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SALT LAKE CITY — Jalen Brunson is making $1.8 million this season. That's less than 12 players on the Mavericks' roster.

He sure looked worth a whole lot more than that on Thursday night in Salt Lake City, and likely earned himself a substantial pay raise with a 31-point outing in the 126-118 win in Game 3 of the Western Conference playoffs.

Fresh off of a 41-point performance in Game 2 in Dallas, Brunson came out confident and in control to start the first game of the series in Utah.

He put up a game-high 15 points in the first half and seemed to be getting whatever he wanted on offense, much to the dismay of the amped up and hostile crowd at Vivint Arena. He briefly left the game at the end of the first half after taking an elbow to the lower back from Royce O'Neale, but returned to the court after halftime and maintained his high level of play — he even surpassed it with 16 second-half points.

"He's a tough guy," head coach Jason Kidd said, adding that he was impressed by some "big time" plays by Brunson on offense in the second half.

Teammate Maxi Kleber said it's been "fun to watch" Brunson's confidence grow and the way it manifests when he's sharing the floor with him: hitting big shots down the stretch.

"He's a great player," teammate Davis Bertans said of Brunson. "He's worked really hard to get to this point, and with Luka (Doncic) out, he has the ball in his hands a lot more."

Even with the added responsibility and playmaking duties, Brunson has turned the ball over just once over the last two games, all while putting up a combined 72 points. The fourth-year guard out of Villanova seems completely at home with the ball in his hands, showing off an impressive display of footwork and shot creation when his team needed it most.

"Whenever he gets into the paint and gets a little step ahead of the defender, I know it's going in," Kleber said of Brunson's patented moves.

Doncic was a game-time decision on Thursday and could return to the starting lineup as early as Game 4 on Saturday, but Jazz head coach Quin Snyder said the "undercurrent" of the impending return of the Mavericks' MVP does not change the need to prepare and adjust their play for Brunson and his backcourt partner Spencer Dinwiddie.

"Whoever we're preparing for, we're getting hurt in transition," Snyder said prior to Thursday's game. "I think the big thing for us is whether it's Luka or Jalen or Spencer or anybody that's attacking, we have to defend collectively."

Snyder was worried about getting scored on in transition, but Brunson showed him and all of Utah he's not a one-trick-pony. He is a bonafide, elite-level playmaker — in the half court, full court or whatever sized court the team wants to try and stop him on.

If Jazz fans didn't know who Brunson was before this series, they sure do now, and he's proving Doncic is not the only star in Dallas they need to worry about ending their season early.

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Caleb Turner covers Real Salt Lake as the team's beat writer for KSL.com, in addition to his role where he oversees the sports team's social media accounts.

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