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SALT LAKE CITY — In the minutes after the Dallas Mavericks won its first-round series over the Utah Jazz in a hostile Vivint Arena where the raucous capacity crowd stood the entire fourth quarter, the team watched the final play of the game again.
It was an immediate film session.
The final play only lasted 4.3 seconds, but it was the difference between a Game 7 on Saturday or a first-round series win. And though Dallas had the upper hand with a 3-2 series lead at that moment, the organization hadn't gotten out of the first round since the 2010-11 season — the season Dallas won an NBA title — so nothing could be taken for granted.
Utah's Quin Snyder drew up a perfect inbounds play to free Bojan Bogdanovic for a 3-point look and a potential win. Utah's screen on the inbounds pass from Royce O'Neale forced Reggie Bullock and Spencer Dinwiddie to collide, but Dinwiddie quickly recovered to contest a Bogdanovic last-second 3-point look.
Bogdanovic pump faked as Dinwiddie passed by, and the 3-point shot hung in the balance for what felt like an eternity to the players on the court. The shot hit the back of the rim and Dallas survived.
"Oh, I was scared," Dinwiddie said, speaking about watching the shot make its way to the rim. "Bogey's a shooter. I spent a year with Bogey in Brooklyn and I have great respect for his game. He's a very good shooter."
"Oh man, I thought, he doesn't miss a lot of those," Luka Doncic added. "My heart stopped. But, man, I felt like that shot was going for like 15 seconds — I don't know, I was just hoping he missed it."
After the celebrations on court and the handshakes with Jazz players for the series fight, Mavericks shooting guard Theo Pinson put the play up on a television in the team's locker room. The play had broken a six-time first-round losing series streak, so why not watch it again?
Or maybe it was a slight jab at his fellow teammate — the play could have been celebrated for the opposite reason by the Jazz had the shot gone in.
"He was trying to say I messed up, which by the way I did not," Dinwiddie joked. "There was contact, there was a screen, and I did my job to run him off the line or make him take an extra dribble, etc., so it wasn't a wide open shot. I did my job."
The final heave … pic.twitter.com/ufnn1vbHrH
— Josh Furlong (@JFurKSL) April 29, 2022
That end-of-game moment would not have happened if not for a rebound effort in the third quarter by the Mavericks, who entered the halftime break down by 12 points. It wasn't a good opening half for the Mavericks, who were just 3 of 18 from 3-point range, and Utah played like a team that had to win to stay alive.
Dallas came out on the attack and erased the 12-point lead with a quick 8-0 run, and then buried the Jazz's hopes by going 8 of 12 from 3-point range in the third quarter. That included an entertaining back-and-forth series in the quarter between Luka Doncic and Bogdanovic trading four 3-pointers in consecutive fashion.
The Mavericks still held the upper hand — and then added six more triples in the fourth quarter to put the final nail in Utah's coffin on the season. But more importantly for the Mavericks, it was a moment to get the "monkey off the back" in a first-round series and advance to the next round.
"I'm excited. It's definitely a big moment for us, for guys that have been around for a while," Mavericks guard Jalen Brunson said. "We finally got over the hump. For the rest of today we'll be happy about it."
And nobody should be more pleased about the opening series than Brunson, who made a name for himself by averaging 27.8 points per game in the series. For a team that lacked a lot of big-name players, outside of Doncic, Brunson put on a show and became a household name — all while only turning the ball over five times in the series.
Brunson became the first player in NBA history to average that many points with five or fewer turnovers in a series since turnovers became an official stat, according to ESPN's Tim MacMahon. He beat out Larry Bird's 27.2 points per game. Brunson finished Thursday night's game with 24 points, four rebounds and two assists.
Doncic is still the main attraction and a key figure in Dallas' turnaround, but Brunson and his individual moments this series helped the Mavericks move onto to the next round. A final-second shot by Bogdanovic, whether it went in or out, wasn't going to change that fact.
But a little film session at the end of the series reminded the team that they were close to having to play one more game to get over a decade-long hump.
