Tensions flare as Utah Jazz lose to Dallas Mavericks

Utah Jazz fans probably shouldn’t be stressed about last night’s 111-103 loss to the Dallas Mavericks. The Jazz were playing a quality, motivated opponent on their home court on the wrong end of a back-to-back. That’s a lot of decent excuses in just one sentence.

This was a high intensity game of basketball with a true playoff atmosphere. That’s probably because, if the season ended today, the Mavericks and Jazz would meet each other in the first round.

Mavericks star ruffles feathers of Utah Jazz players

If that ends up the case, look for Quin Snyder to tailor his defensive schemes around containing Luka Doncic. That proved an impossible task last night, as the Slovenian sensation finished with 35 points, 16 rebounds, 7 assists and 3 steals.

Doncic’s basketball mastery wasn’t his only uncontainable quality last night. Some might call it passion, and others might call it something less flattering. No matter how you view it, he couldn’t contain his emotions either.

Towards the end of the first half, Doncic, upset about a perceived missed whistle, attempted to throw the ball in the general direction of Rudy Gobert. Luckily, Royce O’Neale intercepted the lob: we’ve seen how Gobert responds to disrespect before.

O’Neale took issue with Doncic’s actions as well, and he let him know about it. The Jazz were awarded a technical free throw to begin the second half. Shockingly, it didn’t propel them to victory.

Utah Jazz fall short in furious comeback effort

This Jazz team deserves credit for fighting last night. Midway through the third quarter, Doncic sunk a deep three-pointer to bring the score to 83-63. A demonstrably exhausted Utah Jazz team could have been forgiven for throwing in the towel.

They did not. Instead, they won the fourth quarter by a final tally of 35-26 to make this game competitive. The Jazz might have lost this one, but the Mavericks must know that without a rest advantage, they’ll struggle to beat them in a playoff series.

Utah Jazz guards struggle to co-exist

If you were to put this loss on any one Jazz player, it wouldn’t be Jordan Clarkson. The dynamic scoring guard finished with 19 points on 7/14 shooting from the field and 1/3 shooting from downtown. Utah Jazz fans may wish for him to split the difference between his usual three-point volume and last night’s, but that’s a nitpick.

Instead, it was the starting backcourt that struggled in this one. Donovan Mitchell’s 9 assists were impressive, but not enough to offset his 17 points on 5/19 shooting from the field. Meanwhile, Mike Conley was almost non-existent with 3 points on 1/7 shooting and 4 assists.

We won’t mince words: it’s hard to make Mitchell and Clarkson work sometimes. They have overlapping strengths and compounding weaknesses.

On an unrelated note, Bojan Bogdanovic’s second consecutive stellar performance has to be mentioned. Bogey finished with 21 points on 7/11 shooting from the field and 4/8 shooting from three-point range.

The Utah Jazz should walk away from this contest with their heads held high. They faced challenging circumstances and nearly overcame them. Their focus should remain fixed on a contest with the Portland Trail Blazers on Wednesday.