Today, the Dallas Mavericks came to the away game to challenge the Utah Jazz.
Although the Mavericks are ranked higher than the Jazz and have home-court advantage in the series, they are not actually favored because Doncic is injured. Facing the San Antonio Spurs in the final game of the regular season, Doncicla injured his calf and had to truce.
In the first two games of the series, Doncic watched from the sidelines. Although Doncic went to Salt Lake City with the team today, he still did not play the third game. As a result, the Mavericks may still overturn on the road, after all, they survived the last game with second-round show guard Brunson scoring 41 points.
Today, Brunson didn't drop the chain, he continued his strong play. Facing All-Star guard Mitchell, Brunson continued his core guard style, playing 35 minutes in the starting game to contribute 31 points and 5 assists, shooting 12-of-22 from the athletic. In addition, Dinwiddie scored 20 points and six assists, and clipped Jazz center Gobert during the game to boost morale.
The Jazz side are clearly reluctant to lose the hard-won home field advantage of the series, and their core players have basically played. Mitchell contributed 32 points, Bojan scored 24 and Conley scored 21 points and six assists. But helplessly, the Jazz's bench scored too few points, and Clarkson was alone.
The Mavericks' bench used Kleber, who contributed 17 points, and Bertans, who scored 15 points, and Josh Green also scored 12 points. The whole team worked together, and the Mavericks maintained the lead almost the entire game, winning 126-118 on the road and leading 2-1 on aggregate.
It is understood that Doncic may return in game four, when the Mavericks will be stronger, and the Jazz may really miss the best time to crush the Mavericks.