Luka Doncic sat on the Bench of the Dallas Mavericks in a training suit, smiling, with a towel hanging from the back of his neck, ready to wave the towel to cheer for his teammates on the court.
Just two days ago, on the 21st, Doncic participated in the Full Rangers' first full training since a calf strain, which made people optimistic that he would be able to return as soon as game three of the series against the Utah Jazz. For now, though, Doncic can continue to sit on the sidelines as an enthusiastic spectator. Lone Rangers fans have made jokes, and Doncic is here to assist Brunson.
On April 22, the third game of the Jazz-Mavericks series in the first round of the Western Playoffs moved to Salt Lake City. Lone Ranger guard Jaylen Brunson scored 31 points and five assists with a back injury, Spencer Dinwiddie had 20 points and six assists as they led seven players to a double-double to beat the Jazz 126-118 on the road. The Lone Ranger won 2-1 on aggregate to regain home field advantage.
The Lone Ranger series lost the first game and then won two in a row, in large part because Brunson played two consecutive games with great performances. In Game 2 of the series, Brunson scored a career-high 41 points on 15-of-25 shooting. He scored 31 points on 12-of-22 shooting in the third game. It was the first time in Brunson's NBA career that he had scored more than 30 points in two consecutive games. The team's number one star, Doncic, is still recovering from a calf strain. Doncic has been actively involved in training and hopes to make his series debut in the fourth game.
In the second quarter of the game, Jaylen Brunson yelled a few dirty words at the referee, and then he ate the second technical foul of his career, rubbing his back and cautiously walking toward the dressing room. Before that, Utah Jazz forward Reus O'Neal ran forward and elbowed Brunson on the back when the players on both sides were already in position to grab the rebound. Brunson immediately fell to the ground, looking in pain, and was forced to leave the arena.
That's probably the only way the Jazz can slow Brunson down.
Brunson scored 15 points in the first half, and driven by his offense, the Lone Ranger crowd was high morale and blossomed. At the beginning of the second quarter, the Lone Ranger played a small 10-2 surge to extend the lead to 15 points. The Jazz trailed six straight points under Mike Conley to stop the bleeding, Brunson responded with four points, and Maxie Kleber hit a three-pointer to give the Lone Ranger a 16-point lead at 48-32 at halftime. Jazz is in a hurry!
Back in the locker room, Brunson lay motionless, staring at the monitor in the locker room and watching his teammates continue to fight on the field. At the end of the half, the Lone Rangers built up a 17-point lead.
"When I lay there, I saw the team playing so hard. It gave me a bit of magic to get back on the pitch and continue to do what I had to do. Brunson said. In the second half, Brunson returned and played the third quarter.
"Everyone is on the same page," Brunson said, "we're all talking and communicating." ”
Brunson averaged 16.3 points per game in the regular season and, as the second-leading scorer on the Lone Rangers, became doncic's main point-handler in the absence of Doncic. In the first round, he went from a supporting role to a leading role. According to statistics, after this game, Brunson became the second player in the history of the Lone Rangers to have at least 95 points, 15 rebounds and 15 assists in three consecutive playoff games combined, after the team's history only Doncic has done it.
He has been taking advantage of the Jazz's poor defensive performances against ball carriers as a catalyst for the team. The Lone Ranger did a great job of moving the ball too well, too clearly. It was key to their consecutive wins, with the Lone Rangers shooting a total of 40 three-pointers in two games, including 18-of-42 from three-pointers in the third game.
Lone Ranger head coach Kidd isn't content with winning away from home and regaining series dominance.
"I'm just telling everybody that we haven't done anything yet," Kidd said, "they won at our home, we won at their home and we need to put the win behind us and figure out that we need to do better." ”
It's hard to imagine the Lone Rangers playing so well without Doncic. Dinwiddie scored just five points in the first half, but he scored 15 in the second half. Kléber contributed four three-pointers to score 17 points, and Dorian Finney-Smith also had 14 points, and he hit a key three-pointer in the final 1 minute and 56 seconds of the game to give the team a 10-point lead.
The Jazz, who play at home, are also tenacious, and they are not willing to lose in front of the home audience.
"That group of people in the dressing room, they really believed," head coach Kidd said, "and in the third quarter, they played back. For us, it's actually easy to tell ourselves that 'if you lose, you lose, and you win back', but the first thing that comes to mind is to fight. ”
A big reason the Lone Rangers were able to win in game two and take the lead in the third half was that Kidd grabbed jazz starting center Rudy Gobert and couldn't save the three-point shot from the outside. In recent years in the playoffs, the best defensive player Gobert has become a weakness targeted by the Jazz's opponents. In this series, Gobert once again lost his core values. He was targeted on the defensive end and useless on the offensive end. He is not the inside line where O'Neal, Embiid, and Jokic can't directly punish their opponents, forcing the Lone Ranger to shrink the inside line.
The Lone Ranger used a 5out lineup to play Jazz's Gobert. As long as the Jazz keep the big man on the floor, whether it's Gobert or Whiteside, the Jazz can't do anything about such a lineup.
Poor thinks differently. Sure enough, Jazz coach Quinn Snyder made an important decision in the second half — replacing starting center Rudy Gobert. He was on a small line-up, topping the No. 5 position with Eric Pascal. The Jazz survived, scoring 40 points in the third quarter.
Although Pascal only played 10 minutes, the plus-minus +9 was the highest in the team. In the following series, the Jazz had to increase his playing time if they wanted all the changes.
After switching to the small lineup, Donovan Mitchell exploded, scoring 28 of the 32 points he shot in the second half. Anyone with a discerning eye should be able to see that a small squad can play mitchell's threat on the offensive end. Bojan Bogdanovic had 24 points and Mike Conley had 21 points. The Jazz have won 11 straight at home against the Lone Rangers.
After Conley made a layup, the Jazz trailed to 103-102, nearly closing the 17-point gap. But Dinwiddie made two layups, and Brunson scored six points on three consecutive offensive attempts, making it 113-104. According to ESPN, all of Brunson's points in this game came from dribbling scores. He scored 22 points on the inside, and the possession, pace, strength, and feel were all amazing.
Mitchell said: "He's a talented player. He's a winner. ”
After the game, Brunson didn't want to say anything more about The Royce O'Neal collision. Brunson said: "Winning makes everything not a problem. On the pitch, I said what I had to say. ”
After the home defeat, Mitchell said: "We have to do a good job of defending, and then everything else will be in order, we will go back and watch the game video and then find a way to adjust." The fourth game must be won, we can't lose 2 consecutive games at home, so we can only win and can't lose. ”