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DALLAS — The last time the Utah Jazz were in Dallas, coach Will Hardy came to the podium and declared the game a masterpiece of … well, you remember.
Good news: Things weren't as bad on Thursday.
Bad news: They also weren't that good.
In the third quarter, Kyrie Irving sprinted out in front. As he got to the basket, the Dallas point guard lofted a high-flying lob for Derrick Jones Jr., who finished the play with an emphatic two-hand slam.
A few minutes later, it was Irving catching a lob from Luka Doncic and throwing down a dunk.
That was par for the course Thursday.
Utah was on the wrong end of plenty of highlight plays in Dallas as the team continues to limp to the finish line of the 2023-24 season (there are now 12 more games remaining for those still keeping track).
Dallas had a franchise record 18 dunks against Utah in a 113-97 win over the Jazz at American Airlines Center. And, honestly, it was kind of a surprise the Jazz had the game within single digits early in the fourth quarter; a situation Dallas quickly remedied.
"Obviously, we really struggled to shoot the ball from the perimeter," Hardy said. "That's just life. I thought the team, for the most part, tried to move the ball."
The Jazz finished with 29 assists on 38 made shots — which Hardy called "encouraging," especially considering the lack of actual makes.
Lauri Markkanen had 21 points but struggled to a 6-of-20 shooting night; he was just 1-of-9 from 3-point range. Collin Sexton had 20 points and five assists off the bench.
Doncic had 34 points, nine rebounds and eight assists; and Daniel Gafford added 24 points for the Mavericks as they handed Utah its ninth straight road defeat.
Gafford was 10-of-11 from the field — and every make was a dunk. He thrived on the timing of his cuts after his defender was forced to help on drives. That allowed for easy alley-oops at the rim, or for pocket passes with a clear runaway.
The funny thing is the Jazz had plenty of success doing that, too. Walker Kessler was a perfect 7-of-7 on the night with four shots being dunks, using mostly the same strategy.
"Obviously, that's a weapon for Dallas," Hardy said. "I would assume that that's part of the reason why they made the moves they did. And moving forward for us that's an element offensively that we're hoping that Walker can continue to develop."
He got plenty of good tape to learn from against Dallas, and that is the nature for the rest of the season. The Jazz threw Taylor Hendricks on Doncic for much of the game; that's a pretty steep learning curve. Keyonte George has to fight through different coverages as his reputation grows.
The team as a whole is in development mode.
And, yet, things still were a lot better on this trip to Dallas. Despite poor shooting, a heck of a lot of dunks and playing on a back-to-back, the Jazz were still relatively in the game at the start of the fourth quarter.
"I had almost forgotten about that night until you brought it up," Hardy said when the topic of that last trip was broached. "Thank you so much for bringing it up. Our team has showed that they're resilient all year. They have had good moments have had bad moments, but I think the part that I'm really proud of is how they interact with each other in those tough moments."
