Dallas Mavericks win thriller against Utah Jazz 94 – 91 – NBA Recap(Part 2)
Coming out of the break down by 9 points at 59 – 50, the Utah Jazz were determined to turn things around and charge up the home crowd. Dallas Mavericks actually went on to widen the gap to 11 points with the score at 65 – 54 early in the third quarter, but
Jazz weren’t going to be denied.
Utah went on furious 10 – 0 charge that cut the lead down to just one point. They even went ahead but at the end of the quarter the match was finely poised at 71 – 71.
Neither side backed down in the penultimate quarter and after trading shots for nearly ten minutes they were locked at 87 – 87. From there Dallas embarked on a mini burst of 7 – 4 which proved to be enough for the win.
A crucial 3-pointer from Jason Terry at 87 – 87 gave Dallas the momentum to push forward for the win and his coach Rick Carlisle remarked afterwards that he had faith in Jason to deliver.
"It's the fourth quarter. The truth was Beaubois was exhausted so he had to come out. Jet's been there before. I've seen plenty of nights where he's not shot it good, and then in the fourth quarter he'll make a big one. He's our guy. That shot was as important
a shot as we've hit all year."
Jazz player C.J. Miles remarked that it was the run at the end that cost his side the game and on another day things could have turned out differently.
"They had some big buckets down the stretch, and we had a couple of times when we couldn't convert and the stress got to us," said Miles
Utah forward Paul Millsap though blamed his team’s slow start as the reason for their defeat.
"We didn't come out with enough energy and intensity in the first half and they jumped on us," said Paul Millsap.
"That was the turning point of the game. You got to bring it."
The loss notwithstanding, Utah produced a good display. Jazz centre Al Jefferson was joint top scorer in the game with 22 points while he also pulled down 9 rebounds. Paul Millsap was impressive with his double-double performance, 16 points and 13 rebounds.
Miles also played well coming off the bench for 17 in the game.
Although their effort couldn’t be faulted, the Jazz need to improve on their shooting if they are to challenge the best teams in the NBA. Utah shot a poor 38.8 percent from the field and just 25.0 percent from downtown. This was a crippling disadvantage
against the prolific Mavericks who were 52.1 percent from the floor, although they too did struggle with 25.0 percent from beyond the arc.
Tags: